In February, the California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) published a report that had some interesting findings regarding the use of prescription drugs. With respect to utilization, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and naproxen now rank above opioids as the most commonly prescribed medication class for workers’ compensation claimants. In terms of reimbursement, CWCI […] Continue
Next week, CMS will be holding a telephone call to discuss and answer questions regarding CMS’ new opioid policies for Medicare drug plans. CMS finalized new policies for the Part D plans to follow starting January 1, 2019. Through this initiative, CMS is seeking to strengthen and broaden its partnership with providers to address the […] Continue
On 01/15/19, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) opened a National Coverage Analysis (NCA) to complete a thorough review of the evidence to determine if acupuncture for chronic low back pain is reasonable and necessary under the Medicare program. The public comment period is open until 02/14/19, a proposed decision memo due date […] Continue
Earlier this week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a revised Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside (WCMSA) reference guide, which we first alerted our readers to here on our blog. Some of the changes found within the update guide addressed a few of the recent alarming CMS approval trends we have been tracking. […] Continue
An updated Workers’ Compensation Medicare Set-Aside Reference guide was issued today. The revised guide, version 2.9 can be found here. The updates in this guide are as follows: To eliminate issues around Development Letter and Alert templates auto populating with individual Regional Office (RO) reviewer names and direct phone numbers, these will now display the […] Continue