Advocacy Articles
Updates about legislative and regulatory issues impacting the field of sleep medicine
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations examined a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, which noted that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has estimated fiscal year 2010 improper payments for Medicare fee-for-service and Medicare Advantage of almost $48 billion.
In Friday's issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on an analysis of data from a new sleep module added to the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 2009.
The AASM noted that there is an essential patient care benefit in identifying people with OSA and providing the related treatment for this chronic medical condition, outlined some of the connections between OSA and comorbid conditions, and emphasized that the sleep physician has an essential role in the diagnosis and treatment of OSA.
a representative of the AASM and the Sleep Research Society (SRS) appeared before the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses and submitted a letter urging the Committee to focus on sleep care research associated with the nation’s veterans.
An American Medical Association (AMA) survey is giving physicians an opportunity to provide input on rules and regulations that increase their administrative costs and paperwork burden, or that interfere with patient care without a significant benefit to patients and/or the government.
The OIG has announced that all spots are full in the six free compliance plan training sessions offered in early 2011. As a response, the OIG will offer a webcast for those unable to attend.
The training sessions are aimed at curbing fraud, waste and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs and features presentations from government experts from the OIG, CMS, United States Attorney’s Offices and State Medicaid Fraud Control Units.
The HHS Office of the Inspector General issued a regulatory announcement on February 2 of its intent to finalize new Medicare and Medicaid enrollment standards that will establish procedures to better police fraud and abuse in these programs.
On Monday U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli announced a new report showing that the government’s health care fraud prevention and enforcement efforts recovered more than $4 billion in 2010.
Earlier this week the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that new tools are available online to help providers register for the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.