We will have an election for two NCCRA board member vacancies at the upcoming symposium. Have you ever considered getting more involved? We would love to have your participation. I think each current and former Board member would tell you that service to the organization has been a great benefit to them as a professional and certainly worth the minimal time that it takes to serve.

The vacancies are for the mountain and piedmont Vice Presidents.

If you have questions please don’t hesitate reaching out to any of the current board members and we’ll happy to talk with you!

Application http://nccraonline.org/about/application-for-nccra-vice-presidents/

ARTICLE VIII: DUTIES OF THE REGIONAL VICE-PRESIDENTS
1. Three Regional Vice-Presidents shall be elected to serve the Eastern (Coastal),
Central (Piedmont), and Western (Mountain) regions of North Carolina. The
Regional Vice-President will perform other duties as assigned by the President.
The Regional Vice-President will also serve as liaison to the Board of Directors
for the NCCRA standing committees.
2. The Regional Vice-President shall serve a three-year term and may be elected to
serve consecutive terms. One Regional Vice-President shall be elected each year,
in order to stagger their terms of office. Candidates for Regional Vice-President
can be nominated by a member or self nominate. Candidates must be current
members of the NCCRA and submit an application and biography to the current
Regional Vice-President for approval by the Board of Directors.
3. Professional members shall elect the Regional Vice-President at the Annual
Symposium. Nominations should be made by January 1
st. Nominees will be
notified of the nomination and be instructed to complete the online application.
The Board of Directors will review the applications and post biographies for each
candidate on the Association website. Voting will commence at the symposium
via a process deemed acceptable by the Board. The new Vice-President will be
identified on the Association website soon thereafter.
4. Each Regional Vice-President will assume the role of President-elect when their
term as Vice-President expires.
5. In the event that both the President and President-elect offices are vacated, the
Regional Vice-President of greatest tenure shall assume all duties of the President
and shall have all of his or her authority for the remainder of the President’s
unexpired term.
6. The Regional Vice-President is expected to hold a minimum of one regional
meeting per year. Meeting minutes must be sent to the Secretary for posting on
the Association’s website.

Chatham Hospital Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Chatham Hospital Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation
163 Medical Park Dr, Suite 120
Siler City, NC 27344

Contact: Debbie Scotten
Email: Debbie.Scotten@chathamhospital.org
Phone: (919) -799-4650
Fax: (919) 799-4651

Our program is located in  rural NC  and operate through a critical access hospital (25 bed facility).  Our hospital does not provide invasive cardiac procedures therefore very few heart patients are served in the inpatient setting.  Our Cardiac Rehab referrals are 99% from the surrounding Medical Centers such as UNC Chapel Hill, Moses Cone, and Pinehurst.  We are located  in the a Medical Office Building behind Chatham Hospital.  We are limited in the number of classes due to MD supervision so we only operate on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursdays from 7:30 AM to 12 Noon.  We see an average of 30 patients per day and have 1 FTE- program director which also serves as the program EP and FT nurse,  3 part time nurses, 1 RD 12 hours per month , and a Social Worker who works 4 hours per month.    We have 2 staff that are CCRP and we currently are AACVPR certified. 

Date: April 4th and 5th, 2019

Partnering in Care: The Interdisciplinary Team in Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation

William & Ida Friday Center

100 Friday Center Drive

Chapel Hill, NC

Please post in your department for your staff:
Savethedate2019

We had a great meeting for the Coastal Region on Friday, October 19th.  Attached are some of the power point presentations from that meeting.

AACVPR – National Conference Update 2018
Pulmonary

AACVPR has teamed up with the CDC and Million Hearts to focus on increasing cardiac rehab referral and participation by eligible patients.  They have developed some wonderful tools that all of us can use.  Check it out!

https://millionhearts.hhs.gov/tools-protocols/tools/cardiac-rehabilitation.html

Just a few pieces of information that you might find helpful:

As you may be aware Palmetto released a Draft LCD for Supervised Exercise training.  Both the NCCRA and AACVPR MAC committee gave input on this draft but the future LCD is now available for your review:  https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/details/lcd-details.aspx?LCDId=37774&ContrId=381&ver=4&ContrVer=1&CntrctrSelected=381*1&Cntrctr=381&name=&DocType=Future%7cAllProposed&s=34%7c48%7c53%7c58&bc=AAAAAAQAAAAA&
It is effective for services performed on or after 11/19/2018.

The Office of the Inspector General  (OIG) recently examined appeals and denials of Medicare Advantage  and found that MAOs overturned 75% of their own denials during 2014-2016. Furthermore, independent reviewers at higher levels of the appeals process overturned additional denials in favor of beneficiaries and providers.   This is highly unusual because beneficiaries and providers rarely use the appeals process, which is designed to ensure access to care and payment. The report recommends that CMS (1) enhance its oversight of MAO contracts including those with extremely high overturn rates and/or low appeal rates and take corrective action as appropriate; (2) address persistent problems related to inappropriate denials and insufficient denial letters in Medicare Advantage; and (3) provide beneficiaries with clear, easily accessible information about serious violations by MAOs. CMS concurred with all three recommendations.  For more information you can go to http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-09-16-00410.asp

Cardiac and Pulmonary rehab also remains on the OIG work plan.  Previous OIG work identified outpatient cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation service claims that did not comply with Federal requirements. They will assess whether Medicare payments for outpatient cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services were allowable in accordance with Medicare requirements. They will also determine whether potential risks in outpatient cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation programs continue to exist.  https://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/workplan/summary/wp-summary-0000292.asp

If you are not familiar with the previous OIG work here is the report:  OIG audit of Englewood hosp

Thank you to everyone that came out to the Piedmont Region Fall Meeting.  Here are the slides for those that weren’t able to attend:

2018 Introduction
Cardiac Rehabilitation – Jan Wagoner and John Pasquini
PAD – Carl King
Pulmonary CSI – Kim Clark