Coalition of Health Care Organizations Issues Joint Letter Opposing Governor's Dual Eligible Proposal In an open letter to members of the California State Legislature, nearly twenty organizations representing a wide variety of health care stakeholders urged their representatives to oppose Governor Brown’s dual eligible proposal. The proposal would move patients eligible for both Medicare and Medi-Cal into a Medi-Cal Managed Care program, ultimately disrupting care and harming patients. June 13, 2012 Advocacy, CMA, Medi Cal dual eligibles 0 0 Comment Read More »
Considering BPA: State of the Art or Willful Ignorance? While it is technically correct that the FDA did not ban bisphenol A (BPA), the Wall Street Journal misled readers when it ignored the clear FDA statements that we need to reduce BPA exposure of our most vulnerable citizens. This is a prototype example of the spin-versus-spin arguments that characterize most of the environmental chemical debate. These arguments are not about truth. They are about control of public perception. It is time for willful efforts to skip the spin, outline the challenges, and answer the questions that affect the safety of our children and grandchildren. June 13, 2012 CPMC, Physician Resource, San Francisco Medicine, SFMS Member bisphenol A, Shanaz Dairkee, William Goodson III, BPA 0 0 Comment Read More »
5010 Format Required for Electronic Claims Beginning July 1 The deadline for transitioning electronic transactions to the updated 5010 version of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) transactions standards is July 1, 2012. You will be required to conduct electronic transactions such as claims submissions, eligibility verification, claims status, remittance advice and referral authorizations using the updated transaction standards. June 12, 2012 HIPAA, Medicare, Payment, Physician Resource, Technology 5010, health information technology, HIPAA 0 0 Comment Read More »
Aetna Fee Schedule Changes In April, Aetna made changes to its fee schedule for its commercial lines of business. Although Aetna initially stated that the change would only affect Northern California physicians, SFMS has recently learned that the changes were applied statewide. June 11, 2012 News, Payment fee schedule change, Aetna 0 0 Comment Read More »
Environmental Chemicals: Large Effects from Low Doses As research has expanded into the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), it has been shown that they follow the same rules that hormones follow. Unfortunately, this runs counter to the core assumption that forms the basis for all toxicological testing done to establish regulatory standards: High-dose testing will be informative about low-dose impacts. June 11, 2012 Public Health, San Francisco Medicine EDCs, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, J.P. Myers, Lisa Vandenberg, Thomas Zoeller, EDC 0 0 Comment Read More »
