National Association for ACOs Established

Sixty accountable care organizations recently formed the National Association of ACOs (NAACOS), a nonprofit that seeks to provide guidance on ACO regualations, facilitate learning opportunies among ACOs, and educate the general public about accountable care. 

Read more about it from NAACOS.

Check out FSMB's Model Policy on Social Media & Networking

FSMB's Special Committee on Ethics and Professionalism has issued guidance on social media and social networking in the healthcare industry.  Check it out at FSMB. 

CMS Proposes New Regs

As you may have heard, CMS issued a series of proposals to reduce redundancy and increase healthcare efficiency in the Federal Registrar on Thursday, February 7.   NAMSS is actively reviewing these proposals to help answer any questions you may have.     

More information will be forthcoming.  In the meantime, CMS's complete proposal can be found (beginning on page 9216) here. 

And here are a few points of interest:

Medical Staff

- CMS revisits its rule on one governing body for multi-hospital systems:

May 2012:  CMS permitted one governing body for multi-hospital systems that included at least one member of the hospital’s medical staff.

February 2013:  CMS proposes to retract its requirement that a medical staff member be on the governing body and instead require that a hospital’s governing body consult with the designated medical staff leadership at least twice a year.  Multi-hospital systems with a single governing body would need to consult with the medical staffs of each of its hospitals. 

- CMS proposes to require each hospital to have an organized medical staff that is specific to that hospital and abides by its governing body’s bylaws. 

Outpatient Services

 -CMS proposes to allow hospital medical staffs to authorize practitioners who are not a part of that medical staff to order outpatient services for their patients, if state law permits.

Privileging Dieticians

 -CMS proposes to consider qualified dietitians as practitioners to enable them to order patient diets as part of the Hospital Conditions of Participation.

As we will continue to keep you updated, we invite you to contact us with any questions or input you may have on these proposals. 

NAMSS PASS is Here!

As you may have heard, NAMSS has launched NAMSS PASS (Practitioner Affiliation Sharing Source), a secure, online data repository that will provide MSPs with quick, easy, and inexpensive access to a practitioner’s affiliation history.  With full participation, the history will span an individual’s entire career. 

NAMSS PASS will automate affiliation verification and allow MSPs to perform affiliation gap analyses to identify any credentialing “red flags.”  By simply uploading your practitioner roster, you can help us compile the necessary data to perform comprehensive affiliation gap analyses on any practitioner -- a giant step forward in ensuring patient safety. 

Read more about it from NAMSS Past President, Connie Riedel, and NAMSS Board Member, Paul Veradi, in the upcoming January/February Synergy!

Joint Commission Revision to FAQ on FPPE

The Joint Commission posted on its website a recently revised FAQ to its Standard on Focused Professional Practice Evaluation (“FPPE”).  The revised FAQ can be found at TJC.

AOA/ACGME Unified Accreditation

Jan. 30, 2013

The AOA, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) continue to move toward the creation of a single, unified accreditation system for graduate medical education programs in the United States starting in July 2015. The Joint Task Force formed by the three groups is expected to meet in late February to discuss the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will guide the next steps in the process.

Read more about this effort from AOA.