Although NCMS believes the following classified advertisements in this section to be from reputable sources,  NCMS does not investigate the offers made and assumes no responsibility concerning them. 

BELLMORE—Office to Sublet.  2,000sf. Fully furnished medical office, 2 exam rooms. 2 consult rooms, lab, ample parking, flexible schedule.  Good opportunity for new starting physician. Please call for information 516-409-0106. 

DEER PARK—Professional Building. Excellent opportunity. Physician / Medical Group.  3,000sf can be subdivided.  Separate entrances and ample on-site parking. Call 631-271-4593. 

GARDEN CITY– For Sale. Colonial w/ 4 bedrooms, 3 full + 2 half baths.  Attached professional office w/separate entrance, finished basement, detached 2 car garage. Eastern section.  $1,300,000.  Principals only.  516-294-1407. 

LINDENHURST—Outstanding FP/IM facility in attractive medical professional free standing building. Established since 1952.  High grossing, very profitable, consistent growth.  6000 active patient file charts, approx. 600 new pts. per year.  Services include x-ray, dietitian, sonography.  Call 631-721-8959. drronb@optonline.net. 

ROCKVILLE CENTRE—Office suite available for immediate occupancy in medical/dental building. Owner occupied/private parking.  If interested, call 516-678-0303 to discuss terms.

SEAFORD—Suitable corner medical space for long term lease. 3876 Merrick Rd.  4,000 sf (divisible).  With parking.  Contact Kaufmann Realty Services, Inc. 516-868-4151 or monroejkaufmann@aol.com.  

In its effort to change the medical liability system, MSSNY has advocated for several reforms in addition to a cap on non-economic damages. There are studies indicating that up to 40% of malpractice lawsuits filed have no merit. Currently in New York, before a suit can be filed, a licensed physician must certify the merit of the case. That can be any licensed physician. There is no requirement that the physician have a similar specialty or be a resident of New York. In addition the medical experts, both plaintiff and defense, need not be identified nor deposed. This is not the case in most other states. MSSNY backs legislation that would at least require the medical experts be identified and the physician be certified. Needless to say, the trial bar is opposed to these reforms.

MSSNY has endorsed several alternative dispute resolution concepts, one of which is medical courts. The current medical justice system is not working for doctors or patients injured by negligence. An alternative is the creation of special health courts, similar to special courts for divorce, workers’ compensation, bankruptcy and so forth. MSSNY has endorsed the efforts of the national legal reform coalition, Common Good, in advancing the concept of medical courts. These would involve trained judges in health care matters who would only preside in medical malpractice cases. The court, rather than the plaintiff or defense, would choose the experts, with the malpractice victim being reimbursed for economic damages and for non-economic damages based on a fixed schedule. The American Bar Association is opposed to medical courts on the grounds that medical malpractice victims would be “shunted into a second-rate system of justice.” They feel medical courts would deny a malpractice victim the right to have the claims heard by a jury. It seems their biggest concern is the fixed schedule for non-economic damages. They feel this is a round about way of achieving a cap on pain and suffering awards. Of course, they fail to mention that, on average, the legal expenses consume more than half of the award.

Why not special medical courts in New York? How about some “pilot” projects in selected districts? An incremental approach could be “specially trained judges” who would only hear medical malpractice cases. Your legislators will be campaigning this summer in anticipation of the November elections. Bring these alternatives up to them and talk them up in your respective communities.  

Hope you are having a safe and healthy summer.   

On May 1, 2006, Medicare announced a new enrollment process. The revised CMS 855 form used for Medicare enrollment was implemented without any advance notice of the new requirements and has subsequently led to numerous applications being rejected. Under the new process, new enrollees or those making changes to their current enrollment information are required to: 1) apply for a National Provider Identifier (NPI) number; and 2) begin receiving their Medicare reimbursement through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).

Since the implementation of the new enrollment requirements on May 1, 2006, CMS contractors continue to receive numerous applications which are incomplete. A rough estimate provided to the AMA by Medicare suggests that as many as 50% - 60% of applications are being rejected for being incomplete (and this includes the follow-up request for missing information). Medicare is seeking data from their contractors to get a firm percentage and will share that information publicly once it is available. Please be advised that CMS has prepared a tip sheet aimed at helping physicians and other providers understand the enrollment requirements requirements. It can be found at: www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicareProviderSupEnroll/downloads/Enrollmenttips.pdf.

Medicare is also refining the data used for determining the number and percentage of applications processed within given timeframes and this too will be available in the future. The AMA and MSSNY are tracking Medicare's progress on processing applications and will be following up to obtain this data.

A final reminder that CMS is in the process of seeking approval to revise the CMS 1500 Form. The revision of the form is necessary to accommodate the new National Provider Identifier (NPI) numbers that all of you should have obtained or should be applying for through the following website: https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov. Additionally, you can download a paper application through the following website for completion and submission to obtain your NPI: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/NationalProvIdentStand/Downloads/NPIapplication.pdf.

Please feel free to call the MSSNY Division of Socio-Medical Economics at 516-488-6100, ext. 426 for more information on any of these issues. Regina McNally will be happy to assist you.  

Is Your Web Site Linked to Ours?

As a member benefit, you can now have your web site linked

to ours.  Increase visibility and access to your practice at no cost

to you as a member of NCMS.

HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL FIND AT WWW.NACMED.ORG

Nassau County Medical Society's web site has all this information

for you at your fingertips. 

Visit us TODAY at

- WWW.NACMED.ORG -

We welcome your comments and suggestions on our web site and its contents.

This is a reminder for all providers and physicians who bill Medicare contractors for their services. A brief hold will be placed on Medicare payments for all claims during the last nine days of the federal fiscal year (September 22 through September 30, 2006). These payment delays are mandated by Section 5203 of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. No interest will be accrued and no late penalties will be paid to an entity or individual by reason of this one-time hold on payments. All claims held during this time will be paid on October 2, 2006. 

This policy only applies to claims subject to payment. It does not apply to full denials, no-pay claims, and other non-claim payments such as periodic interim payments, home health requests for anticipated payments, and cost report settlements. 
Please note that payments will not be staggered, and no advance payments will be allowed during this nine-day hold. For more information, please view the MLN Matters article at
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/MM5047.pdf 

The FDA Wednesday announced its approval of influenza vaccines manufactured by Chiron, GlaxoSmithKline, MedImmune and Sanofi Pasteur for the upcoming 2006-2007 flu season. Flu vaccines are reformulated each season to target new strains. This year's versions will include protection against one strain used in last year's vaccine and protections against two new strains. MedImmune's FluMist vaccine is a nasal spray, and the rest of the vaccines are injected. In total, 100 million doses of the four approved vaccines are expected to be available in time to be administered in the fall, "but these projections could change as manufacturing continues," FDA said in a statement.

Last month, FDA warned Sanofi-Pasteur about contamination in the company's Pennsylvania-based manufacturing plant. Sanofi said it has addressed the problem and still expects to supply 50 million doses of the vaccine in time for the flu season. 

As had been expected, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) formally announced this week that Medicare reimbursement for physician services would be cut by 5.1%, effective January 2007 in the absence of Congressional action. The cut is the result of the faulty statutory formula (the Sustainable Growth Rate methodology, or SGR) used to set Medicare physician reimbursement rates. According to the formula, if spending on physicians’ services exceeds a targeted growth limit, it triggers cuts to physician payments. The potential cut has been the source of much legislative activity. Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton have signed on to a joint letter submitted to US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Minority Leader Harry Reid, urging a positive Medicare update for physicians instead of the 5.1% cut. In the House, several members of the New York delegation (both Republicans and Democrats) have signed unto a similar letter being sent to Speaker Dennis Hastert and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. 

Governor George Pataki signed into law legislation (S.8417, Spano/A.11996, Bradley) that would take meaningful first steps to address some of the several contracting problems that physicians have experienced with certain HMOs and other insurers. MSSNY Vice-President Michael Rosenberg, MD, Westchester County Medical Society Past-President Andrew Kleinman, MD and ENT& Allergy Associates CEO Robert Glazer participated in a press conference this week with Senator Spano, Assemblyman Bradley, and representatives of the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association and the Westchester County Association to urge the Governor to sign this bill into law.
The bill includes provisions that will: 

•  prohibit HMOs and other insurers from demanding refunds from a physician for a claim previously paid, except in limited situations involving fraud or abusive billing, to no more than two years after the time that such payment was initially made. Some health plans have been known to demand refunds for claims that were paid as far back as six years ago; require 30 days advance written notice to a provider that the insurer will be seeking a refund, including the specifics regarding the previous payment that is being reviewed. Some HMOs have been known to merely offset the amount demanded against future payment owed to a physician with little if any notice as to why such future payments were being reduced
  
  

• require health plans to accept and initiate the processing of claims consistent with the AMA’s CPT codes, guidelines and conventions
  
  

• require some "transparency" regarding the unique manner by which health insurance companies determine how they will reimburse claims submitted by physicians for care provided to patients. Health plans will be required to provide the name of the commercially available coding editing software they use, as well as significant edits added to their coding software.
  
  

• require that an insurer or health plan complete its review of a healthcare provider's application to become a member of its provider panel within 90 days of receiving such application, except in limited situations such as a failure of a third party to provide necessary documentation or unusual circumstances. Some HMOs have been known to take six months or longer to complete credentialing even for new licensees.

Physicians and practice CEOs across New York State are to be congratulated for their extensive grassroots efforts to educate their legislators and the Governor’s office regarding the numerous problems they have experienced with health insurance companies. 

The provisions of this legislation take effect January 1, 2007. We are optimistic that the bill will be the first of a series of reforms to be adopted in future years so that physicians and other health care providers can spend more time with patients and to make certain that patient need and not insurance company profit is always paramount. Moreover, MSSNY will be closely monitoring implementation of the new law to assure that health plans do not inappropriately take advantage of the exceptions to the new provider protection rules that are set forth in this law. 

August 29, 2006 - 4 PM 

The New York State Department of Health reported today on the first isolation of La Crosse virus from a mosquito pool in Nassau County. This is the first identification of La Crosse virus in Nassau County for as long as records have been kept. The mosquitoes were found in Woodbury on August 3rd.  The virus was identified in a sample of Aedes vexans, a species which is active during the day as well as dusk and dawn. La Crosse virus infection generally produces mild illness, but occasionally may progress to severe encephalitis.  The disease occurs more frequently in children under the age of 16.

Aedes vexans is a woodland mosquito and is found in tree holes as well as artificial containers such as old tires, buckets and other containers which also may be a breeding site of the West Nile virus carrying mosquito, the Culex pipiens. To date, no humans or horses have tested positive for West Nile in Nassau County. There have been 20 mosquito pools and one bird identified with West Nile virus.

La Crosse encephalitis may present as frank encephalitis progressing to seizures or coma. The majority of infections are subclinical or result in mild illness. 

Reporting cases of viral encephalitis:

To ensure rapid identification of arborviral infection including La Crosse virus, please report immediately by telephone to the Nassau County Health Department at 571-3471 any adult or pediatric patient with clinical evidence of viral encephalitis.  In addition, providers should consider La Crosse virus infection in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with focal paralysis, intractable seizures, coma or unexplained death.   

Testing for viral encephalitis and viral meningitis, including La Crosse virus:

The NYSDOH Laboratory, Wadsworth Center, offers diagnostic testing for a wide range of viruses, including La Crosse virus, that have been associated with encephalitis and meningitis. Appropriate specimens for testing include cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), acute and convalescent sera, and brain biopsy or autopsy material. If you have a patient that meets the enclosed clinical criteria for La Crosse testing, we will assist you in arranging testing at the Wadsworth Center. Please call the Nassau County Health Department at 571-3471.

Serologic testing for asymptomatic patients or those with mild symptoms, such as fever and headache, is not necessary. The likelihood of infection in these patients is extremely low, especially in the absence of an outbreak. Also, since there is no specific treatment for La Crosse infection, patients with mild symptoms do not require specific diagnostic testing. Mildly ill patients should be advised to seek medical attention if they develop more severe symptoms such as high fever, severe headache or seizures. Thank you for your assistance in these important matters.