As healthcare leaders around the country make decisions to guide the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, renowned physician experts Robert M. Wachter, MD, and Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, discussed how the pandemic is reshaping the future of medicine and healthcare delivery during a virtual meeting hosted by the TDC Group of companies on February 3.

In this article, find their answers to key questions regarding the vaccine.
https://www.thedoctors.com/articles/covid-19-vaccine-questions-answered-by-virtual-panel-of-healthcare-experts/

This is a reminder that the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Nominating Committee of the Fellows (NCF) and the Nominating Committee of the Board of Governors (NCBG) are currently accepting nominees for Officers-Elect and Board of Regents positions.

These leadership positions include:

Officers-Elect

The 2021 NCF will select nominees for the three Officer-Elect positions of the ACS:

 

• President-Elect
• First Vice-President-Elect
• Second Vice-President-Elect

Entities such as ACS Chapters, surgical specialty societies, ACS Advisory Councils, and ACS Committees who wish to provide a letter of nomination must provide a description of their selection process and the total list of applicants reviewed.

Please review the Criteria for Consideration and Further Details sections on the ACS website before submitting nominations.  

The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, February 19, 2021.

Nominations must be submitted to officerandbrnominations@facs.org. If you have any questions, please contact Emily Kalata, staff liaison for the NCF, at 312-202-5360 or ekalata@facs.org.

 

Board of Regents

The 2021 NCBG will select nominees for six pending vacancies on the Board of Regents to be filled at Clinical Congress 2021.

Entities such as ACS Chapters, surgical specialty societies, ACS Advisory Councils, and ACS Committees, who wish to provide a letter of nomination must provide at least two nominees, and a description of their selection process, along with the total list of applicants reviewed. 

Please review the Criteria for Consideration and Further Details sections on the ACS website before submitting nominations.

The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, February 19, 2021.

Nominations must be submitted to officerandbrnominations@facs.org. If you have any questions, please contact Emily Kalata, staff liaison for the NCBG, at 312-202-5360 or ekalata@facs.org.

A copy of today's NYS DOH Healthcare Provider webinar is now available.

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As healthcare providers prepare to distribute COVID-19 vaccines, many face questions regarding best practices for vaccine administration, as well as documentation. Answers to the frequently asked questions below will help your practice protect patients and staff while mitigating liability risks.

> Learn More

On December 2, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Final Rule that includes important changes to the federal physician self-referral law, commonly referred to as the “Stark Law.”  In general, the Stark Law prohibits a physician from making a referral for certain “designated health services” (DHS) to an entity with which the physician (or an immediate family member) has a financial arrangement, unless an exception applies.  Concurrently with the Stark Law changes, the Office of Inspector General also issued new rules under the Federal Anti-kickback Statute, which will be addressed in separate client alerts.
> Read complete alert

The United States Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) recently issued an important final rule (the “Final Rule”) that makes significant changes to existing “Safe Harbors” under the Federal Anti-kickback Statue (“AKS”) and that adds new Safe Harbors that provide protection from AKS sanctions for certain types of arrangements. > Read complete alert

Under these updated metrics, Red, Orange and Yellow Zones will now be determined as follows:

A Red Zone will be implemented when a region reaches a critical hospital capacity—that is, when 90 percent of beds are full (after measures to increase capacity have been taken).

An Orange Zone will be implemented if an area has a 4 percent positivity rate over the past 10 days (on a 7-day average) and is located in a region that has reached 85 percent hospital capacity.

A Yellow Zone will be implemented if an area has a 3 percent positivity rate over the past 10 days (on a 7-day average) and is in the top 10 percent in the state for hospital admissions per capita over the past week and is experiencing week-over-week growth in daily admissions.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred innovations throughout healthcare, many medical practices are wrestling with a stubborn trend: Due to anxiety about potentially contracting the virus, many patients are putting off in-person appointments. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), by June 30, 2020, an estimated 41 percent of U.S. adults had delayed or avoided medical care, including urgent/emergency care and routine care, because of concerns about COVID-19.

> See the Top 5 Tips

> Access the ACS Be Prepared Toolkit

The New York Chapter ACS, working with its specialty partners, issued a letter to the to the Governor, NYSDOH and Senate and Assembly Members calling on the administration to protect access to surgical care.  The joint letter provides the following recommendations and calls on New York to:

• Define a clear plan to decompress ICUs
  
•  Maintain emergency access to critical medical and surgical care
  
• Avoid a prohibition on medically necessary / essential surgeries
  
• Operationalize a safe and effective vaccination program
  
• Support interventions to secure additional PPE

> Read the letter