News from ACOI

The ACOI has submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in response to its proposed payment policies for 2024. In the letter, ACOI re-stated its concerns about Medicare payments that are not keeping pace with inflation. Next year the Medicare conversion factor — the basic starting point for calculating Medicare physician payments — will be reduced by more than 3 percent. While Congress has provided a 1.25 percent positive adjustment for 2024, it is half of the 2.5 percent provided for 2023. The remainder of the cut is due to requirements of budget neutrality triggered by the proposed implementation of office/outpatient evaluation and management visit complexity add-on code G2211 that begins on January 1, 2024.

2023 Award Winners to be Celebrated for their Professional Accomplishments; Presidential Citation to be Granted Posthumously to James C. Giudice, DO, MACOI

I am often frustrated with those who post their questions on blogs and web pages instead of looking for the answer themselves. All too often the answers I see in response to these questions are incorrect. You will see a discussion with multiple people involved discussing how they handle a specific coding or billing situation, and their answers are all wrong. None of them know they are wrong and, in doing so, continue to distribute incorrect information.

Robert A. Cain, DO, FACOI, FAODME, believes there’s value in every experience, and today as President and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) he is using his vast experience as a pulmonologist, educator, leader in medical education, and advocate for osteopathic medicine, to lead an organization that is an important voice in the education and training of physicians who practice osteopathic medicine in settings across the medical spectrum.

Melanie De Shadarevian is a Post-Graduate Year 3, Internal Medicine Resident at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego. A daughter of Lebanese, Armenian, and Syrian immigrants, she was raised with ingrained values of gratitude and is leveraging her observations of life, and her vast exposure to a multitude of cultures, into a heart for serving underserved populations. Whether she connects with patients speaking French, Spanish, or Arabic, she is happy to give them the comfort of speaking to them in their native language when she can while addressing their care in the signature holistic way that makes her proud to be a DO.

When you join us at ACOI 2023, you’ll witness unique speakers that will no doubt expand your mind and challenge your perspectives. In honor of this year’s theme—Health, Wellness, or Medicine?—the ACOI is proud to present a broad spectrum of keynote speakers and topics that will have you thinking about health, gratitude, and the future of medicine.

Payment Update Threatens Practice Stability

Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) proposed rule.

As of June 27, 2023, all DEA registered practitioners must complete a one-time eight-hour training requirement on the treatment and management of patients with opioid or other substance use disorders. Fulfill all eight hours of DEA training through the ACOI Online Learning Center.

Pride is people finding strength, courage, and a common voice to demand equality and destroy systemic legal, medical, media, and social oppressions that exist. We need to focus on this rather than the media’s focus on corporations that support the LGBTQIA+ population.

At Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, the passionate faculty within the Internal Medicine department put out an entire smoked brisket spread, complete with all the tasty sides, for the graduating students that matched into Internal Medicine. This tradition is supported by the faculty who are passionate about celebrating and encouraging their future colleagues.

From April 26 to April 28, 2023, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) celebrated its 125th anniversary at the Educating Leaders 2023 (EL23) conference in Baltimore, MD. EL23 was my first ever in-person conference, but it will not be my last.

The old saying, where there’s a will, there’s a way isn’t just a saying for Troy L. Randle, DO, FACOI, FACC, MBA.