Boston Convention & Exhibition Center - Boston, MA October 21-25
The ACS Clinical Congress features outstanding education and training opportunities at the premier annual surgical meeting for surgeons, surgery residents, medical students, and members of surgical teams. The hallmarks of the Clinical Congress are a broad range of outstanding hands-on and didactic learning opportunities and timely discourse on the most relevant surgical practices and research, along with unparalleled access to peers.
Learn more and register to attend
In late July, all US members of ACS with an email address were sent an initial email notifying them of an upcoming survey, followed by an email with a link to the survey. The survey is anonymous and is being performed in partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Survey Research Laboratory (SRL). The web based survey is completed by clicking the unique link in the email with the subject header “ACS Firearm Injury Prevention Membership Survey.” The email came from David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS, and was sent on behalf of uic.edu.
The last day to complete the survey is September 9th. Please check your e-mail and SPAM folder if you have not yet completed the survey.
Protect Your Medicare Payments Register Now- ACS General Surgery Coding Workshop in Nashville, TN
With Medicare and third-party payor policy and AMA CPT coding changes taking effect in 2018, it is imperative that surgeons and their practice coding and billing team have accurate and up-to-date information to protect reimbursement and optimize efficiency.
Register now for the American College of Surgeons Coding Workshop to be held on August 9-10, 2018 in Nashville, TN.
Participants in this coding workshop will not only learn how to correctly report surgical procedures and medical services, but will also have access to the tools necessary to succeed, including coding workbooks to keep for future reference that include exercises, checklists, resource guides, templates, and examples. Physicians recieve up to 6.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for each day of participation. In addition, each day of the workshop meets AAPC guidelines for 6.5 continuing education units.
Take a moment to support your colleagues to fight a proposed provider tax on ambulatory surgery centers in the state. Take Action to tell your Pennsylvania lawmakers to reject a Provider Tax in the state budget.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf proposed a new PROVIDER TAX on Pennsylvania ambulatory surgery centers in his 2018-19 budget address. His proposal seeks a 2.81% tax on profitability (net patient revenue) to generate $25M on an annual basis. The tax is part of the Human Services Code which provides additional dollars for Medical Assistance. The tax will result in decreased access to high-quality, cost-efficient community based surgical care, and increase costs for patients, insurers, employers and the state. The legislature is giving serious consideration to approving the tax. The new Provider Tax would be detrimental to ambulatory surgery centers that provide a critical part of the quality and affordability of health care in Pennsylvania (Fact Sheet on Provider Tax). The Keystone and Philadelphia Chapters of the American College of Surgeons have joined with the Pennsylvania Medical Society and the Pennsylvania Ambulatory Surgery Association to oppose the new Provider Tax. A new tax on one part of medicine could lead to future taxes for others.
Clinical Congress 2018 October 21-25 Boston, MA
Registration opens in June.
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) will be offering Didactic Experiential Courses (DC) and Surgical Skills Courses (SC) at Clinical Congress 2018, October 21–25 in Boston, MA. New Postgraduate Courses this year include the following:
On April 9th, the SWPA Chapter of the American College of Surgeons met at the LeMont Restaurant to consider interesting case presentations by surgical residents from area training programs. Nineteen cases were submitted and the top five were selected for discussion at the event. Johnathan Levy, MD (PGY-V) at AHN Allegheny General started the evening with an examination of “Delayed presentation of pyogenic liver abscesses after hemorrhoidectomy.” Kevin Yang, MD (PGY II) from UPMC Mercy presented “Multiply Injured Trauma Patient with a Partially Transected Innominate Artery.” Omar Hashmi, MD (PGY IV) from AHN Allegheny General spoke on “Extensive Neovaginal Squamous Cancer in a Transgender Female Presents as a Large Pelvic Mass.” “Inside the Eleventh Hour with an Aortoesophageal Fistula” was presented by Jennifer Silvis, DO from Conemaugh Health System. Pete Allen, MD (PGY-V) from UPMC Mercy was voted Most Interesting Case for his presentation on “A Case of descending mediastinitis from a dental infection.” Congratulations to Dr. Allen and to all our presenters and special thanks to Dr. Sheri Mancini for moderating the evening’s event.
Jonathan Levy, MD, Ari Reichstein, MD, Omar Hashmi, MD, Pete Allen, MD, and Stanislav Nosik, MD
Submissions now being accepted for the Most Interesting Case Presentations.
Submission Guidelines
ELIGIBILITY The competition is open to all general surgery residents and surgical specialty residents. Medical students are not eligible. Having presented at the national level is not a disqualifier to submitting an abstract.
Send two copies of each abstract to be presented (one blind copy with only the paper’s title for judging and one version with the principal author’s name, institution, phone, fax, and e-mail address) to the SW PA Chapter Office by Thursday, March 22th, 2018. The abstracts will be reviewed with a number being selected for presentation at the April 9th event. Each selected presenter will be notified shortly thereafter.
Register to attend
Protect Your Medicare Payments Register Now to Attend 2018 ACS General Surgery Coding Workshop
With Medicare and third-party payor policy and American Medical Association (AMA) Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding changes taking effect in 2018, it is imperative that surgeons and their practice coding and billing team have accurate and up-to-date information to protect reimbursement and optimize efficiency. To help surgeons succeed, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) has scheduled several general surgery coding workshops in 2018.
Participants in a coding workshop will not only learn how to correctly report surgical procedures and medical services, but will also have access to the tools necessary to succeed, including a coding workbook to keep for future reference that includes exercises, checklists, resource guides, templates, and examples. Physicians receive up to 6.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ for each day of participation. In addition, each day of the workshop meets AAPC guidelines for 6.5 continuing education units.
Register Today
The remaining ACS coding workshops in 2018 are listed below:
*The New York City and (November) Chicago workshops offer a third day devoted to trauma and critical care coding.
Thursday Course: Supercharge Your Reimbursement Skills At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Friday Course: 2018 Mastering General Surgery CPT Coding At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Saturday Course: 2018 Intensive Trauma and Critical Care Coding - Only in New York City and (November) Chicago At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
For more information about the 2018 ACS coding workshops, please visit the ACS website or e-mail practicemanagement@facs.org.
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) will host our seventh annual Leadership & Advocacy Summit, May 19–22 at the Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel. The Summit is a dual meeting offering comprehensive and specialized sessions that provide volunteer leaders and advocates with the skills and tools they need to be effective in their roles.
Registration is now open! Register by Monday, April 23 to take advantage of the early bird rate!
Join more than 400 College leaders and ACS members for the 2018 ACS Leadership & Advocacy Summit. The Leadership portion of the meeting will include a full day of sessions devoted to building communication and strategic thinking skills for effective leadership in and out of the operating room. Topics for 2018 will focus on change management, leading in times of crisis, ethics in surgical leadership, fostering leadership skills in young surgeons and residents, managing complex and diverse teams, and getting the most from your team. In addition, a portion of the meeting will be dedicated to sharing ACS chapter success stories and working with you to identify strategies to help strengthen ACS chapters.
The Advocacy portion of the meeting will provide you with the opportunity to hear more about legislative priorities the College is pursuing on your behalf, and will bring together ACS members to develop advocacy skills, learn about legislative and health policy priorities, and advocate in meetings with members of Congress and their staffs.
Saturday, May 19: ACS Committee Meetings and Leadership & Advocacy Summit Opening Reception
Sunday, May 20: Leadership Summit Program and Advocacy Reception and Dinner
Monday, May 21: Advocacy Summit Program
Tuesday, May 22: Hill Visits
For information on the Leadership Summit, please contact Brian Frankel at bfrankel@facs.org or 312-202-5361.
For information on the Advocacy Summit, please contact Michael Carmody at mcarmody@facs.org or 202-672-1511.
In the next two days, Congress will be considering legislation to continue to fund the government. In the past 24 hours, we have learned that Congress intends to include some additional items in this legislation. The ACS supports two of these items but is in opposition to another. We strongly encourage you to review ACS’s letter circulated to all members of Congress earlier today.
In brief, the three issues include:
Easing meaningful use (MU) requirements by removing an outdated requirement directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to continue to make meaningful use standards increasingly stringent over time. Increasingly stringent MU requirements that do not lead to improvements in patient care are unnecessary and unfair to both patients and providers. ACS supports this language.
Continuation of the severely misguided policy relative to “Misvalued Codes” that will almost certainly result in broad, across the board cuts in Medicare physician payment. ACS opposes this language.
We need your help in ensuring that all Senators and Representatives know the ACS’ position on these provisions. Accordingly, we ask you to use the link below to send a message to your individual Senators and Representative, informing them that you support the ACS position. Help Deliver ACS Message
Call or Fax Us Office: 412-321-50301 Fax: 412-321-5323
Address:713 Ridge AvenuePittsburgh, PA 15212-608
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