This section will display new transformation tools. This is consistent with the pursuit of excellence, as excellence is not a stop sign at which you arrive but it is a direction in which you are continually moving; so, transformation is never finished. Peter Senge talks about the gap between your “reality” - where you are - and your “vision,” where you want to be. When you can hold both in your mind at the same time, you develop “creative tension” which drives you forward, as tension always seeks a resolution. The reality is, that when the tension has driven you to where your vision becomes your new reality, your vision will have changed and it will drive you forward more than you originally envisioned. The following are recent developments in SETMA and are thus displayed here.
Current format of The Chronic Care Management (CCM) Code was instituted by CMS in January 2015. It was first proposed in 2013 with a projection of beginning in 2014, but the requirements were such that it would have been virtually impossible for a primary care provider to successfully use it.
When the final version was released, changes had been made such that it could be used. Because the compliance requirements were specific and significant, SETMA decided not to deploy it until we had built a tool so that we could efficiently fulfill the billing demands and so that we could internally audit those requirements to prove that we were meeting all of the demands. The tool would also allow us easily to respond to a CMS audit if one were initiated.
SETMA’s deployment of Chronic Care Management can be found on the AAA Home template, as shown below outlined in green
- e-Prescribing of Controlled Substances (ePCS)
All Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP physicians can now prescribe controlled substances electronically (ePCS). A smaller group of SETMA physicians has been experimenting with this function for the past six months and now all physicians are authorized to use it,. This is another major step in the safe and effective use of controlled substances and places SETMA in the company of only 4% of physicians nationally who are currently using this function.
In the August 20, 2015 Examiner, this column discussed SETMA’s addressing of the “conundrum for patient and provider use of pain medications”: see Your Life Your Health - Prescribing Pain Medications: A Conundrum for Patient and Provider. The “conundrum” is created by the tension which exists between
- patients who need pain medications and other medications which are subject to abuse,
- providers who want to properly treat patients with these medications,
- an increasing abuse of pain medications and
- increasing demands by the Texas Medical Board upon physicians who prescribe these medications.
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