Week In Review

Present your research and celebrate your colleagues at the premier educational event in geriatrics! Submit an abstract of original research for presentation as a paper or poster at #AGS19 in Portland, OR (May 2-4, 2019). Abstracts are solicited in the following categories:

• Case Series & Case Studies
• Clinical Innovation & Quality Improvement
• Clinical Trials
• Epidemiology
• Ethics & Qualitative Research
• Geriatric Bioscience
• Geriatric Education
• Geriatric Medicine in Other Specialties
• Geriatric Syndromes
• Health Services & Policy Research
• Neurologic & Behavioral Science

Click here to submit your abstract today!

The AGS also is seeking award nominations to recognize individuals whose outstanding work in geriatrics education, research, and clinical practice helps advance high-quality healthcare for older people. Click here to learn more about our awards and the application process for each.

The submission deadline for abstracts and award nominations is Mon., Dec. 3.

• Interested in connecting with a mentor (or serving as one yourself)? Check out this exciting opportunity...
• Should paid leave apply only to new parents? Read the case for a broader approach to caregivers...
• IPE assessment, fellowship salary support, and clerkships—oh my! Want to discuss these topics? Join the Teachers Section Community!

Congratulations to this week's most active members: Sally Brooks, MD, AGSF; Mandi Sehgal, MD, AGSF; Meredith Gilliam, MD, MPH; and Huai Cheng, MD. Thank you for your contributions!

• From Kaiser Health News: Senators Unveil Legislation to Protect Patients Against Surprise Medical Bills

AGS leadership starts with you!

• Serving on the AGS Board gives you the opportunity not only to set policy for the Society but also to assure its proper implementation. Your application will require a letter of support from a current AGS Board Member, plus a two-page biographical sketch or a short curriculum vitae. Apply here and view a list of current Board Members here.
• The AGS Nominating Committee meets once a year and considers new and second-term Board Member nominations. Your application will require up to two letters of support from current AGS Board and/or Committee Members, plus a two-page biographical sketch or curriculum vitae. Learn more and nominate yourself or a colleague here.

The application deadline for both opportunities is Mon., Oct. 1.

The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) and the AGS, with funding from The John A. Hartford Foundation, this week unveiled one of the field's first suites of online tools to aid surgeons and related medical sub-specialists who care for older people. With the number of older adults undergoing surgery increasing faster than the rate of the population aging itself, the new series of nine AGS' Geriatrics Virtual Patient Cases (VPCs) for Surgical and Related Medical Sub-Specialties are geared toward helping the entire healthcare system better understand and respond to the unique care needs of older adults.

The VPCs will be available for free through 2020 to the first 1,000 subscribers at GeriatricsCareOnline.org. The Geriatrics VPCs focus on aspects of surgical care unique to older individuals, a growing patient population for all healthcare professionals, including those without formal geriatrics training. Both continuing medical education (CME) and Member Boards' Maintenance of Certification (MOC) credit are available to those who successfully complete each VPC.

"To advance the care we all want as we age, we need to work together to ensure all healthcare professionals have a basic understanding of geriatrics principles," said Thomas Robinson, MD, one of the three leads for the multi-specialty editorial board responsible for the development of the VPCs. "This new set of online tools reflects the partnerships we need to spread learning and transform care."

Learn more.

Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) revised the scoring logic and re-issued the 2017 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) final scores for the physicians who were impacted by the following issues:

• Application of the 2017 Advancing Care Information (ACI) and Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances hardship exceptions.
• The awarding of Improvement Activity credit for successful participation in the Improvement Activities (IA) Burden Reduction Study.
• Incorrect attribution of the All-Cause Readmission (ACR) measure to certain physicians and group practices MIPS final score.

Additionally, to ensure CMS maintains budget neutrality required by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015, some physicians will see slight changes in their payment adjustment because of the reapplication of budget neutrality.

The revisions were made to the performance feedback on the Quality Payment Program (QPP) website earlier this month. We encourage physicians and groups to sign-in to QPP website as soon as possible to review their performance feedback. If you believe an error still exists with your 2019 MIPS payment adjustment calculation, the targeted review process is available for you.

To offer additional time for physicians, groups, and APM entities and their participants to access and review their performance feedback, CMS is extending the targeted review deadline to Mon., Oct. 15, at 8pm ET. CMS also has several resources available on the QPP Resource Library to help physicians and practices understand their performance feedback and the targeted review process. If you are in-need of additional assistance, please reach out to the QPP Service Center at 866-288-8292 or QPP@cms.hhs.gov. For more information, access CMS's statement.

Researchers estimate that 21% of medical care is unnecessary—a problem that costs the healthcare system at least $210 billion each year. Join Kaiser Health News (KHN) on Thurs., Sept. 27, from 12:30-2pm ET at the Kaiser Family Foundation's Offices in Washington, DC for an informative and important discussion about overtreatment. Learn more and register here.

This event is sponsored in part by The John A. Hartford Foundation which supports KHN's coverage related to aging & improving care of older adults.

"Osteoporosis and Soft Tissue Disorders"—the second in a three-part series of our U13 Bench-to-Bedside Conferences—will be held Mar. 11-12, 2019, in Bethesda, MD. Sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the AGS with additional support from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, the conference will provide attendees with opportunities to learn about cutting-edge research, participate in creating recommendations for future research, and network with colleagues and leaders in the field.

Click here for a preliminary conference agenda, and be sure to submit your application by Fri., Oct. 26. Learn more.

In an editorial for JAMA Cardiology, AGS CEO Nancy Lundebjerg, MPA tells the story of an important conversation with a cardiologist that influenced her decision-making as a caregiver for her mom. Nancy notes how she "imagines a health care world in which physician-patient conversations start with this question: What matters to you?" Read the full editorial here.

"Geriatric medicine is just good medicine," as Mandi Sehgal, MD, of Florida Atlantic University describes it.  And to illustrate that point to first-year learners, Dr. Sehgal and her team asked several colleagues in multiple specialties all over the country, from community to academic programs, to reflect on how they use geriatrics principles in practice. Check out their video compilation here.

The Connecticut Choosing Wisely Collaborative released a report with suggestions for using Choosing Wisely as a tool to empower and engage underserved populations. The report is the result of a day-long summit held last October. Learn more.

• Christopher Carpenter, MD, MSc, FACEP, FAAEM, AGSF, and others describe an important study of the accuracy of dementia screening instruments for emergency medicine in the Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.
• Mandi Sehgal, MD, spoke with the NPR affiliate for Kansas City, MO, about the need for more geriatricians and why specialized medicine for older people is so important.
• Debra Saliba, MD, MPH, AGSF; Nancy Lundebjerg, MPA; and colleagues participated in a retirement celebration for Jerry Johnson, MD, AGSF, at the University of Pennsylvania.
• In podcast for Stanford Medicine, Rachelle E. Bernacki, MD, MS, AGSF; Laura J. Morrison MD; VJ Periyakoil, MD; and others discuss advanced care planning for cognitively impaired older adults.
• POLITICO included commentary from the AGS in its overview of reactions to the 2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule.

• The Anticoagulation Forum will be hosting its 15th national conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL, Apr. 11-13, 2019. Learn more and register here.
• The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) will be accepting submissions for its geriatric oncology mini-focus issue until Mon., Oct.1.