Volunteer's Note
ASSH-AHSS Combined Meeting Housing Update
Listserv Hot Topic: Effort by ASSH, AMA Results in Key NCCI Changes
AMA Membership Update
ASSH Social Media: Educate Your Community During Slip and Fall Season
Last Chance! Submit Your Proposal for $100,000 Multi-Center Clinical Research Grant
Membership Application Deadline Approaching
Thank You to AFSH Donors
Physicians to Congress: Use Excess War Funds to Offset SGR Repeal
Volunteer's Note
The 2012 ASSH Specialty Day in San Francisco is less than three weeks away.
The program will address common and complex hand and upper extremity problems in a comprehensive and dynamic fashion.
Leading experts will provide scientific evidence for current best practices for optimal patient care.
Highlights of the program include:
- Latest knowledge in upper extremity fractures in children
- Current indications for replantation and panel discussion on replant centers
- Update on elbow fractures
- Current topics in Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Clinical pearls - fractures, tendon injuries, arthritis
- Case discussions of selected complicated cases
John Lubahn, MD, and I are extremely fortunate to be working with such an outstanding and dedicated faculty, which works together to make the program current, interesting, and high yield. We are sincerely grateful for the time and expertise given by our members, who are leaders in the field of hand surgery.
We would also like to express our gratitude for the large amount of organizational work done by Donna Decker and other ASSH staff members to help make Specialty Day a success. We hope to see you at
Specialty Day on Saturday, February 11.
Sincerely,
Dawn M. LaPorte, MD
Chair, Specialty Day Program Committee
ASSH-AHSS Combined Meeting Housing Update
The discounted housing block for the first combined meeting of the American and Australian hand surgery societies
– which will be held March 22-25, 2012, in Kauai, Hawaii
– has sold out.
More information on overflow hotels will be available soon. Please check the
event webpage for important housing updates.
Listserv Hot Topic: Effort by ASSH, AMA Results in Key NCCI Changes
Daniel J. Nagle, MD, received a letter this week informing him that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has decided
– based on an appeal from the ASSH and the AMA
– to delete two National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) edits.
The decision is being haled on the Physician Listserv as a key victory for ASSH members and proof that surgeons can affect the political process by banding together and lobbying policymakers. Thank you to Dr. Nagle and Sherry Smith of the AMA for spearheading this effort.
If you have already signed up for the Listserv, you can view or contribute to the NCCI discussion by visiting the
archives and scrolling down to the thread titled "Follow-up on bundling." If you don't know or remember your Listserv password, you can reset your password
here.
To sign up for the Listserv, visit the
ASSH website.
AMA Membership Update
AMA rules stipulate that in order to qualify for a seat in the AMA House of Delegates, 25% of our members must be AMA members. We'd like to recognize those who have answered the call to either join or rejoin.
Thank you to all of the ASSH members who notified us this week (via email or the Listserv) that they've joined or rejoined the AMA:
Michelle A. James, MD
Bruce M. Leslie, MD
Have you recently joined or rejoined the AMA? Please let us know by contacting amitchell@assh.org so we can track the progress of your AMA membership. ASSH will reconcile our membership list with the AMA to get credit for our members in early 2012.Have your voice heard: Join the AMA.
ASSH Social Media: Educate Your Community During Slip and Fall Season
It's the icy season of slip and falls! Refer your patients and community to the Hand Society's Facebook page and Twitter account for information on the dangers and treatment of wrist fractures.
Last Chance! Submit Your Proposal for $100,000 Multi-Center Clinical Research Grant
The AFSH will award a $100,000 grant this year for a well-designed, prospective multi-center clinical research study. Applications must be submitted by February 1, 2012.
The 2012 Active, International and Supporting Membership application deadline is February 6.
Applicants: Contact Jeanne Bloesch, ASSH Senior Membership Coordinator, at
membership@assh.org to confirm sponsor eligibility.
All materials, including sponsor letters, must be submitted by the February 6 deadline.
Thank You to AFSH Donors
Gregory J. Adamson, MD
Sunjay Berdia, MD
Gregory M. Buncke, MD
Anthony L. Finuoli, DO
Douglas A. Gordon, MD, FRCSC
Pedro A. Romero, MD
Benjamin D. Sutker, MD
William A. Ward, MD
Did you know you can now support the Foundation (AFSH) through automated monthly payments? Visit www.afsh.org/donate to complete an auto-pay form, or contact afsh@assh.org.
Physicians to Congress: Use Excess War Funds to Offset SGR Repeal - from AMAIn a
letter sent Monday to the conference committee charged with addressing the Medicare physician payment issue, the AMA and 108 physician associations
– including the ASSH
– urged Congress to redirect excess projected war funds to repeal Medicare's failed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. A devastating 27% cut in payments is scheduled for March 1st.
"Using funds that will not be needed as the wars wind down to protect health care for men and women in uniform and our nation's seniors is the fiscally responsible thing to do," AMA President Peter W. Carmel, MD, said in a
news release.
Read more.