Late on October 31, 2014, CMS released the final Medicare physician fee schedule for 2015. Notably for AAHKS members, CMS is holding the work relative values for total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty at the 2014 interim values. In other words, as AAHKS recommended, CMS is not imposing additional cuts to bring the values to the level… Read More
Archives
“Why I Chose Adult Hip and Knee Replacement as a Career”
Orthopod, the eNewsletter of the American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics published an article in its September 2014 issue by Christopher Blair, DO, MBA titled “Why I Chose Adult Hip and Knee Replacement as a Career.” Dr. Blair highlights his experience with The Match, the AAHKS Annual Meeting, and what he gained by attending the Annual Resident Course. Full… Read More
Wall Street Journal Reports on Insider Trading Probe involving Medicare Agency
According to The Wall Street Journal, authorities are interviewing CMS officials and others after shares of Dendreon, Corp. fell 10% on June 7, 2010. The investigation centers around leaks made by a CMS official in an internal email to staff members. “The Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing the three overlapping insider-trading investigations involving CMS,” WSJ reports. Full… Read More
Executive Director Meets with Senator
AAHKS Executive Director Mike Zarski, along with AAOS Executive Director Karen Hackett, met with U.S. Senator John Barrasso, MD (R-WY) on Wednesday. Senator Barrasso, an orthopaedic surgeon, was passing through Chicago as he campaigned for a number of Senate candidates across the country. Over lunch, the discussion focused on likely election outcomes and how they would affect the… Read More
AJRR Obtains CMS QCDR Designation
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had designated the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR) as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) for the collection of medical and/or clinical data for the purpose of patient and disease tracking to foster improvement in the quality of care provided to patients. AJRR is partnering with CECity, a leading provider… Read More
New TKR Technology in Developed by AAHKS Member
This week, the Billings Gazette featured the story of AAHKS member, Dean C. Sukin, MD and a patient who received the new Vanguard XP Knee System that Dr. Sukin helped develop. Dr. Sukin is one of two surgeons in Montana who are trained to perform the surgery using the new technology. He has “been performing the procedure about… Read More
Patient Education on AAHKS Website in Demand
Every day, nearly 600 visitors go to the “Total Hip Replacement” and “Total Knee Replacement” patient education pages on the AAHKS website. The unique visitors are coming to the AAHKS website from searches at Google.com and going directly to the articles. Keywords such as “hip, knee, hip & knee, hip and knee, and hip and knee replacement” bring… Read More
Zimmer Moves Up to Gold Corporate Partner
For their support and commitment to AAHKS, Zimmer, is recognized as a Gold Corporate Partner due to their increase in their overall support of the Annual Meeting. The Corporate Partnership program allows AAHKS to recognize those in the industry that demonstrate a commitment to supporting AAHKS in addressing the medical, educational, socioeconomic and health policy issues that we… Read More
CEO of aethenahealth, Inc. to Give Keynote Speech
This year’s keynote speaker for the 24th AAHKS Annual Meeting will be Jonathan Bush, CEO and President of aethenahealth, Inc. He co-founded the Company in 1997 and took it public in 2007 in the most successful initial public offering that year. Today, athenahealth remains one of the health care information technology industry’s fastest growing companies. In his first… Read More
JBJS Features Prehabilitation Study
The October 1st issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery features a study of physical therapy before joint replacement surgery, and found that “prehabilitation” can diminish the need for postoperative care and save on costs. OrthoSpineNews from the AAOS reported on this study of 4,733 THR and TKR patients, and said, “Approximately 77 percent of patients… Read More