The New York Chapter is proud to be part of a coalition urging the Governor to sign lifesaving measures for motorists into law.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 29, 2020

 CONTACT: Pete Daniels / pdaniels@saferoads.org / 301-442-2249 (C)

 S. 4336/A. 6163 will save lives, reduce injuries and curb costs

 As organizations representing traffic safety, public health and medical professionals, emergency responders and the insurance industry, we are united in urging Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) to sign Senate Bill (S.) 4336 / Assembly Bill (A.) 6163 into law to improve the state’s current seat belt requirement.  Passed by the State Legislature on March 3, 2020, S. 4336/A. 6163 was sponsored by Senator David Carlucci (D) and Assemblyman Walter Mosley (D) to close a gap in New York’s seat belt law.  Since 1984, when New York became the Nation’s first state to enact a primary enforcement seat belt law for drivers and front seat passengers, rear seat passenger safety has lagged behind.  It is time for New York to join the 19 states and Washington, D.C. that have already taken this essential action to protect all occupants.

Over the last decade, lack of seat belt use by rear seat passengers has contributed to significant numbers of fatalities and injuries in New York, with 300 people killed and over 29,000 people injured.  The absence of a rear seat belt requirement leaves young people particularly vulnerable because rear seat occupants ages 16-24 have the lowest rate of belt use and account for approximately half of the state’s motor vehicle crash fatalities.  A more comprehensive seat belt law will help protect all occupants and keep teenagers and young adults safe on the roads.

Read the entire release

Patrick V. Bailey, MD, MLS, FACS, Medical Director, Advocacy, ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy, Washington, DC, interviews Mark Aeder, MD, FACS, associate professor, transplant and hepatobiliary surgery, University Hospitals, Cleveland Medical Center, Ohio, about the biggest financial mistakes that surgeons can make. Topics include the importance of dedicated savings; managing debt, both “good” and “bad”; setting a financial plan; having appropriate insurance to cover various stages of life and more.

The Young Fellows Association (YFA) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) is seeking applications from Fellows of the College who would like to apply for the year-long YFA Mentorship Program.  We are in special need of mentors this year. 

Mentoring teams are made up of three people:

1. Early career surgeon – an Associate Fellow (an ACS member out of training, but not yet FACS) or a young Fellow in practice less than 5 years, who traditionally will serve as a mentee in this triad relationship
   
   
2. Mid-level career surgeon – a Young Fellow (an ACS Fellow under the age of 45) who might serve as a mentor to the early career surgeon and a mentee alongside an advanced professional
   
   
3. Advanced professional – a ACS Fellow who holds a leadership within the ACS or an ACS Fellow who has been practicing for more than 10 years

 The mentorship relationship will extend from October 2020 through October 2021. 

Visit the Young Fellows Association webpage for more details and to access links to the Mentor and Mentee applications at 

https://www.facs.org/member-services/yfa/mentor/annual

Questions can be directed to Alison Powers apowers@facs.org

As you may know from recent ACS communications, finalized policies from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will result in significant cuts to physician payment for most surgical services delivered to Medicare patients beginning in January of 2021. If implemented, these policies could also destabilize health system financing and drastically diminish the opportunity for hospital and physician offices to recover financially from COVID-19. For more information, visit https://www.facs.org/advocacy/federal/medicare/prevent-cuts.

The ACS and other surgical associations have urged Congress to intervene and introduce legislation that would waive budget neutrality, effectively preventing the cuts. The ACS will also continue to aggressively push Congress, but only strength in numbers from surgeon advocates at-large will help elected officials understand the importance and time sensitivity of this issue.

Recognizing the profound impact that cuts to physician payment could have on practices and Medicare patients seeking surgical services, please take immediate action and contact Congress via SurgeonsVoice! For more information, contact the ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy staff at ahp@facs.org.

As health care facilities resume operations paused due to COVID-19, a new survey shows a majority of people are reluctant to undergo procedures and may not reschedule necessary care while COVID-19 continues to circulate in communities. To help surgeons and hospitals address patient concerns, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has released a new resource:

Preparing to Have Surgery during the Time of COVID-19.

Surgeon Toolkit
(Download the Word version)

• Introduction
• Template Press Release
• Template Social Media Copy
• Template Social Media Images
• Template Video Script
• Template Article
• Additional Considerations

Surgeon-Patient Discussion Guide 

Surgeon-Patient Discussion Worksheet 

This award is offered through the generosity of The Clowes Fund, Inc., of Indianapolis, IN. Its purpose is to provide support for the research of a promising young surgical investigator. The award consists of a stipend of $45,000 for each of five years and is not renewable thereafter.

The award is restricted to a Fellow or Associate Fellow of the College who has completed an accredited residency in general surgery within the preceding seven years, not including time off for maternity leave, military deployment, or medical leave, and has received a full-time faculty appointment at a medical school accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in the United States or by the Committee for Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools in Canada. The applicant’s academic appointment may not be above the level of assistant professor. Applicants should provide evidence (by publication or otherwise) of productive initial efforts in laboratory research.

For addition information about the award, please visit the George H. A. Clowes, Jr., MD, FACS, Memorial Research Career Development Award webpage.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released the 2020 Quality Payment Program (QPP) Exception Applications Fact Sheet. The fact sheet explains how to apply two types of exceptions: the Promoting Interoperability (PI) Hardship Exception and the Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception. If individual clinicians, groups, and virtual groups meet certain criteria for a PI exception or experience extreme and uncontrollable circumstances—such as a natural disaster or public health emergency (including the COVID-19 pandemic)—they can submit an application to reweight their Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Quality, Cost, Improvement Activities, and/or PI performance categories.

The fact sheet also explains situations where the automatic extreme and uncontrollable circumstance policy would be applied to individual clinicians located in a CMS-designated area affected by an extreme and uncontrollable event during 2020. However, CMS has not yet announced the COVID-19 pandemic as a triggering event for the automatic extreme and uncontrollable circumstances policy for the 2020 MIPS performance year. Therefore, if your 2020 MIPS data collection and reporting has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, you should submit application(s) for the extreme and uncontrollable circumstances policies.

To learn more, view the 2020 MIPS Exceptions Applications Fact Sheet here. Additional questions can be directed to QualityDC@facs.org.

2020 Claude H. Organ, Jr., MD, FACS, Traveling Fellowship
Deadline: June 30

The Organ Traveling Fellowship is awarded to an outstanding young surgeon so he or she can attend an educational meeting or make an extended visit to an institution of his or her choice, tailored to his or her research interests. The successful applicant will receive the sum of $5,000 U.S. This amount is to be used to help defray travel and per diem expenses, plus the cost of any courses the awardee may take in association with the award. Full details and requirements are HERE.

Gerald B. Healy, MD, FACS, Traveling Mentorship Fellowship
Deadline: June 30

The Gerald B. Healy, MD, FACS, Traveling Mentorship Fellowship will be used to facilitate visiting and engaging with one or more successful mentors. The successful applicant will receive the sum of $5,000 U.S. This amount is to be used to help defray travel and per diem expenses, and to subsidize lost revenue from days away from clinical duties. Full details and requirements are HERE.

June 16^th issue of the newsletter, Bulletin Brief, is available below.

Key highlights:

• Surgery Ramp-Up after COVID-19: Insight from ACS Board of Regents Vice-Chair Dr. L. Scott Levin
• ACS Supports Bill that Expands Liability Protection for Frontline Providers
• General Surgery Training Stakeholders Gather for Virtual Meeting
  RAS-ACS Sponsors Hangouts for Young Surgeons
• Use ACS Resources to Weather Negative Symptoms Caused by COVID-19

Today, the New York State Department of Health issued updated guidance for Resumption of Non-Essential Elective Surgeries and Non-Urgent Procedures in Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Office Based Surgery Practices and Diagnostic and Treatment Centers. Highlights from the guidance are included below and a link to the complete document is provided.

Hospitals

Hospitals in all counties may resume non-essential elective surgeries and non-urgent procedures in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Waivers are no longer required.

Hospitals should continue to monitor metrics, however, original thresholds of ICU total bed capacity, ICU bed capacity, and COVID hospitalization rate based on the HERDS survey data will no longer be used to qualify hospitals to resume and continue to perform non-essential elective surgeries and non-urgent procedures.

There is no longer a requirement to submit information about the types and numbers of surgeries and procedures to the Department on a monthly basis however, hospitals should have a mechanism to report this information to the Department if requested in the future.

Testing

The test period may now be extended from three days to five days prior to the surgery or procedure. Test results should be received and reviewed before conducting the surgery or procedure. The only exception would be a nonscheduled  emergent procedure where testing prior to surgery may not be feasible. In this case, a thorough screening and history should be taken as well as appropriate  precautions. A test should be performed as soon as possible, and if positive, may result in the need for health care worker exposure protocols to be followed. Providers / Hospitals do not have to perform the test; it is allowable to accept a third-party test provided it is a viral molecular assay as described above and is performed by a laboratory with any required permits and approvals.

Transfers / Hospital Capacity

The intention was clarified for for ambulatory facilities to maintain ongoing confirmation of local hospital capacity (bed census, ICU census, and ventilator availability). The intention of this guidance is for ASC, OBS, and DTC providers to monitor capacity at the hospitals to which they would normally be transferring to and/or recommend patients visit post procedure, if necessary. Providers should establish their own policies for frequency of monitoring and may monitor local hospital capacity by region at the following link: https://forward.ny.gov/early-warning-monitoring-dashboard.

PPE

There has been no change to the requirement for ASCs, OBSs and DTCs to have adequate PPE and medical and surgical supplies appropriate to the number and type of procedures to be performed. Adequate PPE means that an ambulatory provider has at least a seven-day supply of PPE on hand, and the provider’s supply chain can maintain that level to support outpatient surgeries and procedures without resorting to contingency or crisis capacity strategies. To prepare for a potential future surge, providers should be working towards having immediate access to a 90-day supply of PPE.