Colorado Medical License MUST be Renewed by April 30, 2017
This serves as a reminder that the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) has designated April 30, 2017 as the expiration date for all physician medical licenses. Therefore, if Centura hospitals are unable to verify that your license has been renewed, your clinical privileges will be suspended effective May 1, 2017.nnNo grace period will be accepted and DORA will need time to process your application, so please take actions now to ensure you are able to meet this deadline.nnVerifications must be completed via the DORA website, so you do not need to submit a copy of your wallet card.nnA few bullet points from the DORA website regarding licensure renewal are referenced below:n
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- If you received a renewal notice recently, your license is open for renewal. To review renewal fees and to check the Division of Professions and Occupations renewal schedule, please CLICK HERE.
- Click the “Start Your Renewal” button below and use the log in information provided in your renewal notice email to access your account or CLICK HERE.
- All future communication from DORA will be electronic, please keep your email address current in DORA’s online services system. Licenses renewed after the expiration date will be charged a $15.00 late fee by DORA.
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March 30th marks the annual observation of 
We are done right? We made it, we are ok… keep rolling on… NOT so fast!nnICD-10 is key to a lot of the new regulations that are rolling out—MIPS and MACRA being great examples. As always it is all about documentation of services. ICD-10 has a lot more granularity, lots more codes to describe conditions and causes. It is this level of granularity that is so powerful. It is incredibly important to accurate HCC (Hierarchical Condition Category) scoring. This is an absolute MUST when it comes to Medicare Advantage plans! Good and especially thorough ICD-10 coding and documentation helps better define conditions. This directly affects HCC scoring. HCC scoring is the Golden Nugget in the MA world.nn
A recent survey conducted by AMA reveals that practices are reporting an average of 37 prior authorization requests each week, eating up an average of 16 hours of both physician and staff time. Check out the article, below, by Health Leaders Media, outlining the results of the survey.nnThe healthcare industry hasn’t eliminated the hassles for providers that prior authorization often entails, but they’re getting closer, several speakers said here at 
Former Aetna CEO claims Obamacare is flawed, read more below about what former Aetna CEO Ronald William’s has to say about Obamacare. nnSince the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, making the math work has been a real challenge. For Obamacare to be sustainable, the insurance “risk pool” equation has to work. Premiums from young, healthy consumers have to exceed medical care costs for older people. Was there a problem with the formula?nn”I think it was flawed,” former Aetna CEO Ronald Williams told CNBC’s On The Money in an interview.nn”In health care you really need a balance of people who need health care today, tomorrow and in the future,” he said. “And the rate structure was set in a way that those who needed health care today got the most affordable premiums. That means typically older citizens got a much better deal.”nnWhile the Affordable Care Act was being created, Williams often met with President Obama or his staff, and testified before Congress as Aetna CEO from 2006 to 2010. Obamacare has a “structural imbalance” that resulted in higher costs for healthier, younger people, Williams said, but lower costs for those who are “older and more likely to need care.”nnAs a result, “Younger participants in the exchanges and who purchase individual insurance paid more and they just didn’t see the value, and therefore they did not come forward and sign up,” he said. Williams said that because young adults chose not to sign up for ACA, the insurance industry is “missing their premiums and that’s causing the overall rate of increase to be greater.”nnThat, in turn, is helping “make the insurance pool unsustainable financially,” he said.nnSince stepping down as Aetna’s chief executive in 2010, Williams has been CEO of his own consultancy, RW2 Enterprises. He’s also a director of American Express, Boeing, and Johnson & Johnson. With President Trump vowing to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, the public doesn’t yet know what will replace it.nnWilliams said what is needed is “much more competition” and lower cost, more flexible plans so that consumers have “a range of options as opposed to a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.”nnWhile we hear a lot about repealing ACA, the jury is still out on what comes next. The process of getting Obamacare created took years of negotiating and planning from various and multiple parts of the health care system. Is the same thing going to have to take place again to remake the Affordable Care act?nn”I think it does,” Williams said. “We need to make changes in a thoughtful way. We need the input of hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, health insurers and consumers.”nnThis 
nnAnthem CEO Joseph R. Swedish appeals the federal judge’s decision to merge with Cigna and claimed merger would save consumers $2 billion in medical costs. Read more about the Anthems appeal below.nnAnthem CEO Joseph R. Swedish said he was “significantly disappointed” with the federal judge’s decision and claimed the merger would save consumers more than $2 billion in medical costs annually.nnAlmost immediately after the court ruling that shut down its plans to merge with Cigna in a $54 billion deal, Anthem announced Thursday that it will appeal the decision.nnOn Wednesday Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the D.C. District Court agreed with antitrust regulators that the merger would create an insurance giant that would unfairly control much of employer-provided health coverage in the country.nn”The company promptly intends to file a notice of appeal and request an expedited hearing of its appeal to reverse the Court’s decision so that Anthem may move forward with the merger, which was approved by over 99% of the votes cast by the shareholders of both companies,” the company said in a statement.nnJoseph R. Swedish, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Anthem, said he was “significantly disappointed” and claimed the merger would save consumers more than $2 billion in medical costs annually.nn”If not overturned, the consequences of the decision are far-reaching and will hurt American consumers by limiting their access to high quality affordable care, slowing the industry’s shift to value-based care and improved outcomes for patients, and restricting innovation which is critical to meeting the evolving needs of healthcare consumers,” Swedish said.nn”Moving forward, Anthem will continue to work aggressively to complete the transaction while remaining focused on serving as America’s valued health partner, delivering superior health care services to our approximately 40 million members with greater value at less cost.”nnIn the parallel case argued on the same grounds, a federal judge last month blocked the proposed $37 billion merger of Aetna and Humana. It is not known if that decision will be appealed.nnThis