April 2012 April 1, 2012 MMS News Briefs April 2012 0 CMA needs survey responses by April 6 for urgent legislative issueRegister now for April 25 practice management seminarDr. Georgianna Farren nominated as MMS president-electCalling all photographers! Cover photo needed for MMS DirectoryGov. Brown to speak at CMA Legislative Day on April 17DocBookMD expands to entire North BayRESOURCESAPPLICANTSABOUT MMSCMA needs survey responses by April 6 for urgent legislative issue CMA is in the midst of a legislative struggle with representatives of Blue Cross and Blue Shield about what criteria physicians consider before signing a contract to be in a payor's network. The plan representatives are successfully asserting a false claim about what drives physicians to contract. CMA needs your help to refute this false claim. Please share your contracting experience by responding to a brief, 3-question survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/2N3RCLH. The survey results will be crucial in helping CMA pass legislation to protect physician and patient interests. It is critical that you respond no later than Friday, April 6. For questions, contact CMA’s reimbursement help line at 888-401-5911 or jblack@cmanet.org. Register now for April 25 practice management seminar Right now is a great time to sign up for an important practice management seminar on Wednesday, April 25. Cosponsored by the California and Sonoma County medical associations, the 5-hour seminar consists of two parts: "Know Your Rights" and "Medicare 2012 & Beyond." Topics include appeal rights, Medicare audits and preparing for ICD-10. Presented by the CMA Center for Economic Services, the seminar will be held at the Fountaingrove Inn in Santa Rosa. Lunch will be provided. Cost is $55 for SCMA members and $105 for nonmembers. To register, fax the flyer below to 707-525-4328 or contact Rachel Pandolfi at 707-525-4375 or rachel@scma.org. April 25 Medicare seminar flyerDr. Georgianna Farren nominated as MMS president-elect MMS president Dr. Peter Bretan and incoming president Dr. Irina deFischer announce that Dr. Georgianna Farren, medical director of the Marin Community Clinics, has been nominated as MMS president-elect for 2012-13. Others nominated to the MMS Board of Directors are Drs. Jeff Stevenson, Paul Wasserstain and Michael Kwok. The nominees for the CMA delegation are Drs. Irina deFischer, Larry Bedard, Jeff Stevenson and Anne Cummings. MMS members will receive ballots in May via postal mail. For more information, contact Cynthia Melody at cynthia@marinmedicalsociety.org or 415-924-3891. Calling all photographers! Cover photo needed for MMS Directory Do you have a high-resolution digital photo of Marin County that you’d like to share with your colleagues? If so, please email the photo to Steve Osborn at sosborn@scma.org for possible use on the cover of the 2012-13 Marin County Physician Directory. The photo needs to be vertically oriented and should have a file size of at least 3 megabytes. The final print size of the directory is 6.5 inches wide by 9 inches tall. Subject matter is wide open, but photos must be taken within Marin County. The cover of the current directory, for example, shows the Point Reyes Lighthouse. The deadline is May 1. For more information, contact Steve at 707-525-0101 or sosborn@scma.org. Gov. Brown to speak at CMA Legislative Day on April 17 Gov. Jerry Brown will be the keynote speaker for CMA’s annual Legislative Leadership Conference, to be held in Sacramento on April 17. Hundreds of physicians from around the state are expected to attend the free all-day conference. The morning session includes speeches from Brown and other key legislative leaders. In the afternoon, attendees will go to the Capitol to meet with legislators on health care issues. Physicians interested in attending the conference should contact Cynthia Melody at cynthia@marinmedicalsociety.org or 415-924-3891. DocBookMD expands to entire North Bay MMS members can now use the DocBookMD mobile app to send HIPAA-compliant messages to their colleagues throughout the North Bay. The new, regional version includes medical society members in Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Mendocino and Lake counties. Getting started with DocBookMD is simplicity itself. Just follow the instructions below. 1. Download the free DocBookMD app from the iTunes App Store or Android Market to your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Android phone. 2. Click on Register. 3. Enter your email address. 4. Enter your state (CA) and county (Marin). 5. Enter your CMA/MMS ID number. (Call 415-924-3891 if you need your number.) 6. Create a password. 7. Answer sponsor questions. 8. Complete the HIPAA compliance agreement. That’s it! Once you’re registered, you can send messages, images and more to your medical society colleagues throughout the North Bay. For more details, visit www.DocBookMD.com. DocBookMD is supplied at no charge to MMS members thanks to the sponsorship of MIEC. RESOURCES Several CMA webinars, many for CEU credit, are scheduled for 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. on select dates in April. To register, visit www.cmanet.org/events/register/login. The webinars are free for CMA members; cost for nonmembers is $99. The schedule appears below. * Managing upset and/or difficult patients - April 4 * Medicare: Top 10 claim and documentation errors - April 11 * Best practices for managing your accounts receivable - April 18 * California’s public health insurance programs - April 23 * 2012 legislative update - April 25 In recognition of the two-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act, CMA has launched Reform Essentials, a regular newsletter designed to provide readers with the latest developments in California’s implementation of federal health care reform. The publication is available at www.cmanet.org/resource-library. Future installments of the newsletter will include updates from California's Health Benefit Exchange Board, information on essential health benefits, and other topics related to the Affordable Care Act. Primary care physicians who are transitioning to electronic health records can get assistance from CalHIPSO, a nonprofit organization that offers technical advice, access to vendors, educational webinars, reduced pricing on software, and many other benefits. Interested physicians should visit www.CalHIPSO.org or contact Kent Waldsmith at kent@calhipso.org or 510-285-5745. APPLICANTS Keith Chamberlin, MD, Anesthesiology, 700 Irwin St. #102, San Rafael 94901, 460-9924, kjcacm@pacbell.net, Georgetown Univ 1979 Katherine Chastain-Lorber, MD, Psychiatry, 1044 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. #3, Kentfield 94904, 707-360-1910, Fax 707-360-1942, tamar.rose@comcast.net, UC San Francisco 1978 Mehrdad Razavi, MD, Neurology*, Sleep Medicine*, 5 Bon Air Rd. #C116, Larkspur 94939, 927-4990, Fax 927-4999, mehrdadrazavi@hotmail.com, Univ Vienna 1994 * board certified ABOUT MMS The Marin Medical Society, a 501(c)(6) nonprofit association, supports local physicians and their efforts to enhance the health of the community. We are affiliated with the California Medical Association and the American Medical Association. © 2012 MMS, PO Box 246, Corte Madera, CA 94976 Comments are closed.