October 2006 | Vol. 24, No. 10

Industry News

Nova Southeastern University Receives CAAHEP Accreditation

Terrence Case, MEd, RVT, Program Director and Assistant Professor of the Bachelor of Health Science Vascular Sonography program at Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, has announced that the Vascular Sonography program at the University has received CAAHEP accreditation. Congratulations to Terry and Nova Southeastern University.

Applying for ARDMS’ PVI Examination Just Got Easier

The American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) has long been the industry standard in sonography credentialing excellence and now offers its first examination exclusively for physicians: The Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation (RPVI).

This ground-breaking ARDMS credential has been developed for physicians who practice vascular ultrasound/technology.

The RPVI credential establishes a validated standard for physician’s skills in interpreting the vascular ultrasound images that are so important for making accurate diagnoses.

“I think this [RPVI] credential is going to be a tremendous success… This is very important because prior to the RPVI, there has been no certification or recognition, of vascular disease. There has been vascular surgery and cardiology but for the first time, this credential is putting it altogether. It’s a multi-specialty credentialing, so it doesn’t matter if you come from a surgical or medical background. You can get the same credential –- all of the people with different specialties working in the same area and that’s where this whole field of non-coronary vascular disease is going,” said Dr. Jeffrey Olin, D.O., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.C., Director, Vascular Medicine and Vascular Diagnostic Laboratory, The Zena and Michale A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute.

ARDMS would like to congratulate the hundreds of physicians who have already taken this examination, and are serving as pioneers in their field.

It is now easier than ever to apply for the Physician’s Vascular Interpretation (PVI) exam.

Just visit the physician’s section of the ARDMS web site at www.ardms.org/physicians. Here you will find the pertinent information to apply for the examination, including information on scheduling an exam, sample questions, and an overview of the application online process.

In this section, you will also find PVI prerequisite information. In order to apply and sit for the PVI examination, every physician must choose one of these prerequisites to apply under. After you have chosen a prerequisite, simply click “apply online” and you will get step-by-step instructions for the simple application process.

Allied Health Professions Week 2006

The Health Professions Network (HPN) has announced that it's not too soon to start thinking about how your vascular laboratory can celebrate Allied Health Professions Week (AHPW) in your community, November 5-11, 2006.

AHPW is the one time each year allied health professionals from all health professions can focus on encouraging pride in their professions and promoting collaboration among all the disciplines that are a part of allied health.

Whether you work for a healthcare facility, an allied health education program, or a professional association, there are lots of ways to recognize the importance of allied health professionals in your community. For additional information on how to celebrate Allied Health Professions Week 2006 in your community in November 2006, please go the HPN website at http://www.healthpronet.org.

Medicare Survey Finds Overall Satisfaction in Contractor-Provider Relationship

The vast majority of Medicare health care providers are satisfied with the customer service, claims processing and educational activities provided by the Medicare fee-for-service contractors, according to a new survey conducted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

The first Medicare Contractor Provider Satisfaction Survey (MCPSS) was designed to garner objective, quantifiable data on provider satisfaction with the fee-for-service (FSS) contractors that process and pay Medicare claims. The MCPSS revealed that 85 percent of respondents rated their contractors between 4 and 6 on a 6-point scale.

The survey was sent early this year to more than 25,000 randomly selected providers, including physicians, suppliers, health care practitioners and institutional facilities that serve Medicare beneficiaries across the country. MCPSS will be administered on an annual basis to measure satisfaction with key services performed by the 42 FFS contractors that process and pay more than $280 billion in Medicare claims each year.

“Our partnerships with physicians and hospitals – the full scope of health providers – is so important that we are measuring their satisfaction with contractors’ service levels and hold the contractors to high performance standards,” said CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. “The new survey aids us in working with Medicare contractors which, in turn, will help us be more effective in dealing with our providers nationwide.”

The survey focused on the seven business functions of the provider-contractor relationship -- provider communications, provider inquiries, claims processing, appeals, provider enrollment, medical review, and provider audit and reimbursement. Respondents were asked to rate their contractors using a scale of 1 to 6 on each of the business functions, with “1” representing “not at all satisfied” and “6” representing “completely satisfied.”

For all contractor types, key predictors for satisfaction were the handling of provider questions and claims processing. The specific composite scores by contractor type are:

• Regional home health intermediaries received an average score of 4.79
• Part A fiscal intermediaries received 4.71
• Part B carriers received 4.52
• Durable medical equipment regional carriers received 4.43

Among those who interact with fiscal intermediary contractors, the most satisfied providers are rural health centers and skilled nursing facilities, both with 4.73, followed by end-stage renal disease treatment facilities with 4.59, and hospitals with 4.57.

For those interacting with carrier contractors, the most satisfied providers are ambulance (4.66) and physicians (4.61), followed by labs (4.50) and licensed practitioners (4.40).

“Provider feedback is a critical component of the evaluation and enhancement process in our effort to get the best possible contractor performance,” Dr. McClellan said. “These results from our first-year survey will set the baseline so we may identify trends and address issues in the future. The survey enables CMS to make valid comparisons of provider satisfaction between contractors and, over time, improvements to the Medicare program.

In January, the 2007 MCPSS will be distributed to a new sample of Medicare providers. The views of each provider in the survey are important because they represent many other organizations similar in size, practice type and geographical location.

The MCPSS is one of the tools CMS will use to measure provider satisfaction levels, as a result of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. It was developed with extensive input from providers, and information about the survey has been disseminated to providers through a variety of channels, including Open Door Forum conference calls with providers, and Medlearn Matters articles posted on the CMS Web site. CMS will conduct ongoing outreach to providers throughout the survey process.