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myScroller1.addItem("House Health Care Reform Bill Jeopardizes Future of American Medicine
WASHINGTON, DC . The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) announced their opposition to H.R. 3200, the \"America\'s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,\" currently under consideration by the House of Representatives.
America\'s neurosurgeons strongly support improving our nation\'s healthcare system by ensuring insurance coverage for all our citizens. Unfortunately, as it is currently constructed, this bill goes far beyond what is necessary to fix what is broken with our healthcare system,\" stated Troy M. Tippett, MD, President of the AANS. \"Rather than pursuing a carefully targeted set of reforms, the House bill could amount to a complete government takeover of healthcare.\"
Read more: AANS-CNS Health Reform Press Release-HR3200 7-17-09");
myScroller1.addItem("The Physician Fee Schedule Lookup Tool(www.cms.gov/apps/physician-fee-schedule/overview.aspx) was designed to provide information on the payment rate for services by physicians and nonphysician practitioners under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). The Fee Schedule Lookup includes more than 10,000 physician services, the associated relative value units, a fee schedule status indicator, and various payment policy indicators needed for payment adjustment. With the Fee Schedule Lookup, the user can find not only the national unadjusted payment rate for each service, determined by multiplying the total relative value units assigned to the service by the appropriate conversion factor, but also the geographically adjusted payment rates for each payment locality.");
myScroller1.addItem("The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is an independent Congressional agency comprising of 17 members established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-33) to advise the U.S. Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program.The Commission\'s statutory mandate is quite broad: In addition to advising the Congress on payments to private health plans participating in Medicare and providers in Medicare\'s traditional fee-for-service program, MedPAC is also tasked with analyzing access to care, quality of care, and other issues affecting Medicare.
Click here for MedPAC documents explaing Medicare payments of the various payment systems (hospitals, hospice, physicians, etc.).");
myScroller1.addItem("Neurosurgeons will want to carefully weigh their options regarding Medicare participation for 2012, as physicians had until Dec. 31, 2010 to modify their status with the Medicare program for 2011. The AMA has developed the \"Know your options: Medicare participation guide\"to help physicians evaluate their options and choose the direction that is right for their practice. The kit contains a detailed explanation of the three options, a helpful calculator and various sample materials to help physicians share information with current, new and prospective patients.");
myScroller1.addItem("2011 Coding Update in Neurosurgery
2011 AANS Webinar
2011 AANS Coding Courses");
myScroller1.addItem("The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs will provide incentive payments to eligible neurosurgeons, hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) as they adopt, implement, upgrade or demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. The Official Web Site for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Programs is located here http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentiveprogramsand please note the timeline and important dates!");
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