8:30am to 12:30pm

Mission Heart Path Cardiopulmonary Rehab/Asheville Cardiology Facility

5 Vanderbilt Park Drive

Asheville, NC

Agenda to be posted soon.

Email: joeltipton@paredee.org  or call 828-698-4972 for further information

NC Cardiovascular Update 2010 Brochure

We wanted to make you aware of two recent changes of events regarding CMS.

First, as you probably know CMS recently awarded the J11 MAC to Palmetto. On June 1, 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) had received a protest of CMS’ award to Palmetto GBA.

This has resulted in a Stop-Work Order in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulations. Palmetto has been directed to immediately stop all work in support of the contract. This Stop-Work Order is effective until the final resolution of the protest. A decision is anticipate from the GAO on or about September 8, 2010.

The second issue is in regards to Pulmonary Rehab. Final Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) instructions to local Medicare contractors were released on May 7, 2010. In a CMS publication, MLN Matters, published after all instructions to local Medicare contractors were released, the word, “lifetime” appeared in the informational publication in the description of PR services. It states, “Medicare will pay for up to two (2) one-hour sessions per day, for up to 36 lifetime sessions (in some cases, up to 72 lifetime sessions) of PR.” AACVPR and AARC will be working to further clarify this language but until that time it is recommended to speak with your compliance officers to discuss how to best handle this situation at your facility.

Other exciting news – we have decided to move the location of the 2011 Symposium to Chapel Hill. It will be held at the William and Ida Friday Center on March 3rd and 4th so mark your calendars. In addition to the change of the venue we will also be handling the planning of the event as an organization instead of continuing to use AHEC. This decision was made to help make the event a profitable one again and to ensure that the NCCRA stays financially viable. More details about the event will be forthcoming. Over the coming months we may be looking to you, our members, for your help with different tasks such as helping with the registration table so please check the website for updates.

The final news is that the Board has decided to revive the NCCRA Membership Committee. Our organization is only as strong as its membership and we want to find ways to engage others to get involved and build our numbers. We want people to understand the many advantages of membership including communication with fellow rehab professional, MAC updates from the NCCRA MAC committee, reduced rates for annual NCCRA symposium, access to the members only section of the website containing communication boards, symposium slides, etc.

The first challenges that the board would like to present to this committee include: 1) exploring our memberships’ feelings on program vs. individual memberships to NCCRA and 2) engaging with universities to help increase the participation of students in our symposium and the organization as a whole. Ideally there would be at least one representative from each region. If you are interested in serving on this committee please contact me by 4/30/2010 (stacey.greenway@pcmh.com or 252-847-9146).

Wishing you a wonderful Spring season!
Stacey

NCCRA President

Contact Scott Wright for more information:  swright@bjrh.org

Location:

Village Inn Golf and Conference Center
6205 Ramada Drive
Clemmons, NC

Presented by The Heart Center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Registration: $50
Register online at www.wfubmc.edu/heart/edprogs