IN THIS ISSUE BRIEFINGS FROM THE BOARD 3 TECHNICAL TIPS 5 INTEREST SECTIONS 7 GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS AND ADVOCACY 29 CONNECTIONS CORNER 31 NEW MEMBERS 34 ASETnews Spring 2013 SPRING 2013 VOLUME 37, NUMBER 1 ASET OFFICERS BOARD OF TRUSTEES PRESIDENT Susan Agostini, R. EEG/EP T., CLTM Judy Ahn-Ewing, R. EEG/EP T., CNIM, CLTM, FASET, BA Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center St. John Providence Health System Phoenix, AZ Detroit, MI [email protected] TJ Amdurs, R. EEG T., MS University of Pittsburgh Medical Center PRESIDENT ELECT Pittsburgh, PA Brian Markley, R. EEG/EP T., R.NCS.T., BS The Neurology Center, PA Sara Batson, R. EEG/EP T., RPSGT, CNIM, CLTM Silver Spring, MD Neurology Mobile System Associates, Inc. [email protected] Miami, FL SECRETARY/TREASURER Scott Blodgett, R. EEG T., RPSGT, RST, BBA Pat Smith, R. EEG T., AA ResMed Corporation Child Neurology Center of Orlando, PA Rochester, NY Orlando, FL [email protected] Marcia Davidson, R. EEG/EP T., RPSGT, CNIM, RET, RN St. Mary’s Hospital Madison, WI Ryan Lau, R. EEG/EP T., CNIM, CLTM, MS Indiana University Health Indianapolis, IN Cheryl Plummer, R. EEG T., CLTM, BS University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Pittsburgh, PA Christine Scott, R. EEG/EP T., CLTM, BA Massachusetts General Hospital Boston, MA Cherie Young, R. EEG T., CNIM Children’s Hospital New Orleans, LA 2 BRIEFINGS FROM THE BOARD Editor’s Note: This new column replaces the “President’s Message” and “From the Executive Director’s Desk” newsletter columns. ASET BOARD APPROVES FIRST CHAPTER CHARTER NEW MEMBER-GET-A-MEMBER REWARD PROGRAM t its March 1-2, 2013 midyear meeting, the ASET Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the Hawaii Pacific ffective January 1, 2013, any Active, petition to be charted as the Hawaii Pacific (HIP) Chapter Associate or Student member in good Aof ASET – The Neurodiagnostic Society. The new chapter covers the standing of the Society who sponsors territory of Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. HIP annual chapter dues Ea new Active member for the 2013 member are only $20 for individual memberships and $30 for organizations, year will have the choice of receiving a $10 gift corporations, and institutions. The chapter plans on holding monthly certificate for use in purchasing any item in meetings with guest lectures that qualify for ACE credit hours, the ASET store, including webinar and online starting a lending library for distributing educational resources, course registrations, or a $10 credit toward developing a job resource guide for contract and coverage work in its their 2014 member dues. Any Institutional territory, producing annual meetings, and organizing chapter trips employee member who sponsors a new Active to the ASET annual conferences. For more information and to join member for the 2013 member year will receive the chapter, contact Michelle Russo, HIPASET Chapter President, at a $10 gift certificate for use in purchasing any [email protected]. item in the ASET store. The Hawaii Pacific Chapter becomes the first organization to be To be credited with sponsoring a new Active chartered as an ASET chapter since the program was officially adopted member, all you need do is have him or her by the ASET board at its August 2012 meeting. To learn more about the enter your name where it asks for the “Sponsor’s new chapter program and for helpful tools to start a chapter in your area, Name/Who Introduced You to ASET” on either or to learn how your current local, state or regional neurodiagnostic the hardcopy or online member application society can be recognized as an ASET chapter, click here, or visit the form. When ASET receives the new Active “Chapters” page under the membership tab of the ASET website. member application, you will be notified by email and asked to let us know whether you would like to receive the gift certificate or dues credit. (Institutional employee members will automatically be mailed the gift certificate.) There is no limit on the amount of credit that you can earn. The more new Active members Welcome that you sponsor, the more gift certificates or dues credits you can accumulate. In addition, HIPASET it does not matter what time of year the new Active member application is received. Even though the first-year dues are pro-rated, you will still receive the gift certificate or dues credit for the full $10. Click here or click on the Membership tab of the ASET website for some tips for recruiting your co-workers and colleagues. 3 BRIEFINGS FROM THE BOARD continued ASET BOARD ANNOUNCES NEW RECOGNITION AWARD BALLOTING FOR THE 2013 ELECTION IS ABOUT TO OPEN he ASET board is pleased to announce the “ASET Trustees Award.” The purpose of this new award is to honor an individual, institution, he ASET Nominating Committee is neurodiagnostic program, or industry supplier who, through putting the finishing touches on its Ta body of work, has made a profound impact on the neurodiagnostic report and slate of candidates for the profession or advancement in the improvement of quality patient care. T2013 election. This year, you will be asked The nomination criteria for the new award is that the body of work for to cast your vote for the offices of President- which the individual, institution, neurodiagnostic program, or industry Elect and Secretary/Treasurer, and for two supplier is being nominated must encompass at least two of the following trustees to the board. When the Nominating six criteria: Committee Report is published, please 1. Has made a profound impact on the neurodiagnostic carefully review each candidate’s information profession to determine the skills, background and 2. Contributed to the improvement of quality patient experience, and strategic foresight that you care think will best guide ASET into the future, 3. Advanced the practice, art, and science of and then cast your vote. neurodiagnostics 4. Reflects the values, ideals and ethics of the All Active, Associate, Student, Lifetime neurodiagnostic profession and Emeritus members – and Institutional 5. Presents an extraordinary and heightened favorability members’ voting representatives/primary view of the values and contributions of the billing contacts – in good standing of the neurodiagnostic profession to the general public and Society are eligible to vote. Your vote is community at large, or within the neurodiagnostic critically important and may very well profession influence the outcomes of the election. As 6. Represents an extraordinary commitment to the with prior year elections, voting will be neurodiagnostic profession and/or to ASET – The electronic. Announcement of when voting Neurodiagnostic Society is open will be posted under the “Breaking News” section of the ASET website and sent in a broadcast email to the membership. For information on how to nominate an individual, organization, or supplier for the ASET Trustees Award, and to access the nomination form, click here, or visit the “Awards” page under the “About” tab of the ASET website. The deadline for submitting nominations is May 31, 2013. The recipient of the annual award will receive recognition and presentation of the award at the business meeting & awards luncheon held in conjunction with the ASET Annual Conference, a suitably engraved plaque, and recognition in The Neurodiagnostic Journal. 4 TECHNICAL TIPS MEDICARE UPDATES 2013 Kathryn Hansen, R. EEG T., BS, CPC Healthcare Consultant Integration Consultants Lexington, Kentucky egulatory challenges have tested our practice profitability with the need to implement documentation and billing changes. This year there are additional factors which will impact clinical and financial practices: CPT® coding guidelines updates, place of service (POS) Rcode updates, ordering and referral edits in Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS), and implementation of ICD-10-CM code changes. A very important change in wording for 2013, as documented in the CPT® Coding Guidelines and subsequent CPT® Codes, is the definition of a qualified healthcare professional. This is the description noted in the 2013 CPT® Manual published by the American Medical Association (AMA): “When advanced practice nurses and physician assistant are working with physicians, they are considered as working in the exact same specialty and exact same subspecialties as the physician. A ‘physician or other qualified health care professional’ is an individual who is qualified by education, training, licensure/regulation (when applicable), and facility privileging (when applicable) who performs a professional service within his or her scope of practice and independently reports that professional service. These professionals are distinct from ‘clinical staff.’ A clinical staff member is a person who works under the supervision of a physician or other qualified health care professional…..who does not individually report that professional service.” For practices who bill evaluation and management codes and professional services associated with interpretation of procedures, these changes may impact subsequent credentialing for contracting with third party payers. Take time now to ensure all providers who are submitting claims for your patients are enrolled with a current profile documenting current credentials for practice. This may be impacted by the information posted in PECOS as well. Related to this is another important update on PECOS and the need for validating ordering/ referring edits. All providers who submit claims to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for services, that were ordered or referred by a provider, who has not been approved through the PECOS system, will have the claim denied. This is being introduced in two phases. At the end of the second phase, specifically: if the ordering/referring provider is not on the claim, it will be rejected; if the ordering/ referring provider is on the claim, Medicare will verify that the ordering/referring provider is in PECOS and is eligible to order/refer; and if the ordering/referring provider is not in PECOS or is in PECOS, but is not of the type/specialty allowed to order or refer, the claim will be rejected starting TIPS TECHNICAL May 1.