Happy Tuesday! Enjoy your NCMS Morning Rounds.

July 27, 2021

NC Professionals Health Program (NCPHP) Call for Nominees

The NCMS has an opportunity to appoint a new member to the NC Professionals Health Program (NCPHP) Board of Directors. Learn more about responsibilities of NCPHP Board members.

Since 1988, NCPHP has been dedicated to helping medical professionals experience a lifetime of change and return to health. NCPHP assists with recovery from substance use disorders and other conditions that could impair a clinician’s ability to safely provide care and services to their patients.

NCPHP originated as a physicians’ health committee of the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS). In 1988, it was established as a formal program of the NCMS and written into the North Carolina General Statutes. To learn more about the important work of this organization, visit the NCPHP website.

Physicians interested in an NCPHP Board position should complete the application form and return it to Evan Simmons, [email protected] by Wednesday, August 18.

Advocate Against Medicare Cuts!

The proposed 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule imposes payment cuts to Medicare providers and will adversely impact patient access to care. Act now to voice your opposition!

CMS recently released the 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program proposed rule. The proposed rule reduces the 2022 Medicare conversion factor by approximately 3.89%.

The conversion factor determines increases or decreases to overall payment rates in the physician fee schedule.

This reduction is a result of the expiration of the 3.75% increase to the conversion factor used to calculate payments at the end of calendar year 2021 that was implemented through congressional action at the end of 2020 in the Consolidated Appropriations Act.

Without intervention, the cuts will go into effect January 1, 2022.

Please join us and your colleagues in expressing opposition to these changes!

Contact your congressional offices now to encourage Congress to stop the proposed Medicare cut. 

Historically Marginalized Populations Engagement Toolkit

Health inequities and disparities among historically marginalized populations (HMP) in the United States and North Carolina existed long before COVID-19; however the pandemic has spotlighted these glaring problems.

The Historically Marginalized Populations Engagement Toolkit  is intended as a guide for NC healthcare systems and health care professionals to help ensure HMP are appropriately engaged in all aspects of public health and healthcare delivery – from planning to evaluation, whether emergency preparedness and response efforts or everyday programs and services.

Access the toolkit here.

In the News

CDC Reports 1st Cases of Untreatable Fungus, Becker’s, 7-23-21

Learning Opportunity

Breathe Easy NC: Becoming Tobacco Free, November 17, 2021,12:00-5:00pm EST

This training will assist behavioral health leaders and practitioners make behavioral health facilities 100% tobacco free and will improve their skills in providing evidence-based tobacco use treatment concurrently with mental health and substance use disorder treatment. Attendees will receive the information and skills needed to prepare for the NC Medicaid tobacco-free policy requirement that goes into effect July 1, 2022.

Participants will learn about FDA-approved tobacco treatment medications and how to deploy them in behavioral health settings. The event will also cover professional ethics and how they fit with tobacco use treatment, as well as trauma-informed tobacco use treatment and policies. Then, through experiential training methods, participants will develop policy planning, implementation and quality improvement skills to integrate tobacco treatment into the behavioral health system.

Learn more and register here.

 

If you have policies you’d like your NCMS Board of Directors to consider, please complete the Board input form here. Thanks for reading!