The Call for Papers for the
2009 Annual Conference & Expo in Houston, TX
has been posted and the proposal submission process is underway. One
of the most important elements of the process is developing a
qualified pool of proposal reviewers. The purpose of this memo is to
ask you to volunteer your services as a reviewer and also help
recruit other volunteer leaders.
The review process will begin on
June 23rd and continue through August 10th.
Each reviewer will be given access to the online database and asked
to select those proposal topics they feel qualified to review. We
are requiring that each proposal receive four separate reviews. You
will be rating each proposal using nine criteria. You will score
each criterion separately and the overall score will be done
automatically. We are asking each reviewer to complete at least 25
reviews and to review only those proposals that they feel competent
to review. All reviews are blind. While comments are not required,
the submitters greatly appreciate the feedback. Comments are
particularly meaningful when a proposal is scored low.
Please help us out this year by
sending an e-mail to Fern Carbonell at
conference@aota.org acknowledging your willingness to
participate, no later than June 13th. Please also provide an
active e-mail address (type your name and e-mail address in the body
of the e-mail) where you can be reached between June 23rd and August
10th. If someone you know would like to serve as a reviewer as well,
please provide them with Fern’s e-mail address and she will share
details about the necessary qualifications.
(posted
05/06/2008)
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Local Coverage Determinations implement Medicare Policy at the local
level. Highmark is the local Medicare Contractor (MAC AB) for the
following states:
DC, DE, MD, PA, NJ
AOTA will be reviewing and analyzing the attached draft LCD for
PM&R, OT and PT. The document is also available online at:
http://www.highmarkmedicareservices.com/policy/mac-ab/j12-d36.html
We will likely submit comments on the proposal, but would encourage
your association to review the proposals as well and submit comments
if necessary. The comment deadline is May 15, 2008.
We will provide you with an update on our take on the proposal once
we start analyzing the document.
For more information about LCDs in general, see this page on the
AOTA website:
http://www.aota.org/News/AdvocacyNews/FAQLCDs.aspx
Chuck
Willmarth
Director, State Affairs and Reimbursement & Regulatory Affairs
AOTA
(posted
04/03/2008)
__________________________________________________________
AOTA Recruiting OT Private Practice
Testing Sites for Quality Program
AOTA is
currently seeking volunteer OT private practices willing to
participate in a Medicare project to develop quality measures
applicable to the occupational therapy profession. We are seeking to
identify 10 – 15 private practices that treat Medicare patients
nationally. This project is being run by a Medicare contractor
called Quality Insights of Pennsylvania (QIP).
Volunteer
practices will receive a Web training on quality measure testing by
QIP, be asked to test four occupational therapy measures in the
clinical setting over a 2-3 week period and participate in an exit
interview with QIP staff. Detailed instructions for this process
and assistance will be provided to participating practices. You
participation in this project will help to assure that occupational
therapists have quality measures available to report on under the
Medicare Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) program and
expand the participation of occupational therapy in ongoing quality
initiatives and critical research endeavors. The four measures that
are being tested include:
·
Re-evaluation
of ADLs/IADLs
·
Re-evaluation
of Home Program
·
Objective
Edema Evaluation
·
Demonstration of Preventive Techniques (Prevention of re-injury and
secondary complications)
Please email
cwillmarth@aota.org if you are interested in participating.
Quick Facts on Beta Testing
Purpose of
Beta Testing: In this
step of measure development, the measure developer is testing
usability of the measures as well as feasibility of the measure.
Feasibility is defined as the data required for the measure can be
obtained by physicians, health care organizations or health care
systems with reasonable effort and within the period allowed for
data collection. The cost of data collection and reporting is
justified by the potential improvements in care and outcomes that
result from the act of measurement. The measure should not be
susceptible to cultural or other barriers that might make data
collection infeasible.
The overall
question being asked in this criterion section is: Can this measure
be collected as it intended to be? The decision elements included in
this section examine aspects of this question:
q
Are the
specifications defined well enough for someone to collect the
measure?
q
Is the
work of collecting the information worth the effort?
q
Will the
specification work as intended, or is it possible that misleading
results could be obtained either through intentional means or
unintentionally.
Time and
effort involvement:
¨
Webex training, approx
1 hr.: This is an online training program to go over the measures
and data collection tools to be used in this testing phase. It is
an opportunity for clinicians to ask questions and clarify any
issues they may have with the measures or tools.
¨
Testing duration 2 – 3
weeks (definitive time frames forthcoming): requirement is 30
observations for each measure or the timeframe of testing has
elapsed.
¨
Exit interview, approx
15 – 30 minutes: approximately 10 questions are asked to ascertain
the clinicians experience with the testing and gain further insight
into ideas for improvement for measures. Some of the questions are
similar to those listed under purpose. The exit interview is
conducted over the phone and scheduled as best as possible for the
clinician’s convenience.
¨
HIPPA protections for
records: Quality Insights of Pennsylvania handles the information
as it does with chart reviews as part of the complaint process with
Medicare. Again, there are strategies to further enhance
protections on the chart with clinicians that can be reviewed on an
individual basis such as use of a private key and removal of
personal identifying information from the record section.
(posted 04/01/2008)
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