CSMS President, Dr. Stacy Taylor, participated in a press conference this week with Governor Lamont and DPH Commissioner Juthani announcing the Lamont administration’s inaugural student loan repayment program, of which $1.6 million is allocated for physicians who practice in primary care or mental  health in underserved areas of our state. While we recognize that $1.6 million won’t make a tremendous dent in loan forgiveness, it is a big step forward for Connecticut and what we hope is the first of many programs focused on the recruitment and retention of physicians in Connecticut.  Read about it here: https://www.ctinsider.com/politics/article/ct-student-debt-relief-doctors-nurses-medical-19467788.php

Read the article here.

In the News! CSMS President Dr. Stacy Taylor is featured in a Hartford Courant article on the concerns with direct-to-consumer laboratory testing. The article can be read here.

MD, APRN, PA: What's the difference? With one-third of CT’s primary care doctors nearing retirement, more practices are looking to non-physician providers to fill the gap. "Advanced clinicians, whether it be nurse practitioners or physician assistants, are an essential part of the healthcare team,” said Dr. Taylor. "We do believe due to differences in education and training, that the team should be led conscientiously and carefully by physicians.” To read the full article, click below. https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/investigations/md-aprn-pa-whats-the-difference/3142230/

CSMS President Dr. David Hass sat down with News 8’s Alyssa Taglia, to discuss how CT can attract more doctors, and what is being done to remove insurance barriers. Watch the full interview here.

CSMS Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Robert Russo, penned “Doctors Day 2023– a legacy to keep,” a thoughtful piece published in honor of Doctors Day, in the CT Mirror.

In honor of National Doctors’ Day, CSMS President Dr. David Hass wrote an op-ed for the Hearst Connecticut papers titled “Doctors working hard for patients across the state,” reflecting on Doctors Day 2023 and the issues facing our members and patients.

The Disaster Preparedness Committee has reviewed the Rand Corporation's toolkit on preventing, stopping, and mitigation of consequences of mass shootings. This extensive document covers many aspects of preventing mass attacks, including Psychiatry, Emergency Medicine, Surgery, the public, law enforcement, etc. Click here to access the toolkit.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) opened the Physician Compare preview period on November 30, 2018 at 10 AM ET (7 AM PT). The 30-day preview period provides an opportunity for clinicians and groups to review their 2017 Quality Payment Program performance information before it is publicly reported on Physician Compare profile pages and in the Downloadable Database.The preview period is extended and is now ending Monday, January 7, 2019 at 8pm ET (5 pm PT).You can access the secured measure preview through the Quality Payment Program website.Check out the resources below on how to preview your data: …

The Connecticut State Medical Society is pleased to highlight our partnership with DrFirst and to offer their iPrescribe mobile e-prescribing solution to CSMS members. DrFirst is the industry leader in medication management and is the trusted partner to over 350 EHRs. We partnered with DrFirst because their applications, like iPrescribe, consistently pass stringent audits and certifications with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to be compliant for both legend drugs and controlled substances. They have joined us in the fight against the opioid epidemic by assuring streamlined access to our state’s PDMP, Connecticut Prescription Monitoring and Reporting System (CPMRS), to improve …

CSMS is encouraging our members to weigh in on the Continuing Board Certification: Vision for the Future Commission’s draft recommendations for continuing certification programs by 12 p.m. on Tuesday, January 15.The Vision Commission says that it “considered the input received from key stakeholders reflected in the more than 21 hours of testimony and results of the open stakeholder survey posted this past summer on its website.”Please share your comments with EVP/CEO Matthew Katz at Mkatz@csms.org. Your thoughts will be submitted to the Vision Commission, who will submit its final report to the Board of Directors of the American Board of …

The 2019 Medicare physician fee schedule final rule included several changes when it comes to payment for evaluation-and-management (E/M) services.Physicians should make note about three things in next year’s fee schedule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS has postponed the E/M coding “collapse” for at least two years. CMS will postpone its proposal to collapse payment rates for four E/M office visit services into a single blended rate. The AMA advised CMS the proposal could create unintended consequences for specialties that treat the sickest patients and for physicians who provide comprehensive primary care.CMS also announced it …

Physicians, hospitals and behavioral health providers participating in the CTHealthLink health information exchange will appreciate access to a new analytic dashboard—Opioid/Controlled Substances. Developed by physicians in response to the widespread opioid crisis in this country, the new tool supplements the currently available Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP).The tool builds upon a more comprehensive set of data than the PDMP, which only utilizes filled prescription data. The new dashboard provides participating clinicians with the list of opioids/controlled substances prescribed or administered to a clinician’s patients even before a prescription is filled at the pharmacy and even if the patient received prescriptions …

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a roadmap with details of their three-pronged approach to combating the opioid epidemic going forward: 1) prevention of new cases of opioid use disorder (OUD); 2) treatment of patients who have already become dependent on or addicted to opioids; and 3) utilization of data from across the country to better target prevention and treatment activities.CMS seeks to strengthen and broaden its partnership with providers to address the opioid crisis through their 2019 Medicare Part D opioid overutilization initiatives.Click here to download the Prescriber’s Guide to the New Medicare Part D Opioid …

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated the list of Electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs) that are fully specified and are available to be used for the 2019 performance period in the Quality Payment Program, which were finalized in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) Final Rule.Updated list of eCQMs and supporting documents can be found on the eCQI Resource Center for the following programs: Quality Payment Program: The Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment Models (Advanced APMs) Advanced APM: Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Program for Eligible Professionals(formerly known as …

QPP Tip of the MonthThe “test” and “partial” participation options that were available for the CY 2017 MIPS participation period are no longer available for the CY 2018 MIPS participation period. To avoid the 2020 MIPS payment adjustment, based on 2018 MIPS participation, physicians will need a minimum of 15 points across all four MIPS categories – quality, improvement activities, promoting interoperability, and cost. Potential ways to achieve the minimum 15 points include: 100 percent score in improvement activities category – reporting medium/high weight activities to achieve a total of 40 points Achieving 18 points out of a total of …

It is heartbreaking to see the destruction caused by the current wild fires devastating California. We thank the brave fire fighters and medical professionals who are doing whatever they can to preserve life. Click here to learn more about how you can help.Healthcare demands rise dramatically when threatened with a natural disaster such as a hurricane or tornado, or wild fires. Significantly impacted are patient access to care, access to health data, and clinician workflows. Determining the best course of medical action requires secure access to patient records. For both the provider and the patient, the health information exchange (HIE) …

CSMS will review/examine these changes and report back to our members. Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized bold proposals that address provider burnout and provide clinicians immediate relief from excessive paperwork tied to outdated billing practices. The final 2019 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and the Quality Payment Program (QPP) rule released today also modernizes Medicare payment policies to promote access to virtual care, saving Medicare beneficiaries time and money while improving their access to high-quality services, no matter where they live. It makes changes to ease health information exchange through improved interoperability and updates QPP measures …

Nearly 100% of chief medical information officers (CMIOs) in US hospitals believe medication management improvement initiatives are having a positive impact and that patient safety issues are less likely to occur today, as compared to five years ago, according to a new survey from the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS). The survey of physician leaders, sponsored by DrFirst, also revealed that CMIOs believe there is more work to be done to address gaps that could potentially impact patient safety.Among the top patient safety gaps identified by CMIOs is the “inability to prevent financial constraints” from impacting patients’ …

The Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI), of which CSMS is a part of, recently sent a letter in response to CMS' request for information on the need for modernization of "anti-kickback" laws. CSMS contributed significantly to the development of this letter and it is consistent with our previous comments to CMS regarding CMMI, APMs, stark and self-referral statutes and initiatives.Three high-level recommendations are included in the letter: Establish clear exceptions to the Statute and CMP restrictions for payment models and demonstrations and other arrangements that promote physician-led initiatives to value-based care. Allow for physicians to align with other high-quality providers (clinical …