The Bivouac of the Dead
The muffled drum’s sad roll has beat
The soldier’s last tattoo’
No more on life’s parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few;On Fame’s eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread;
But Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
Because I live outside of Chicago, our local national public radio channel played a 2-hour show about Studs on what would have been his 100th birthday.
I knew he was a colorful character, but had no idea he had been blacklisted by McCarthy for supporting Worker’s rights in the 50s, or was involved in the voting rights and school segregation struggles of the 50s and 60s.
Here are some links to amazing troves of Terkel Trivia. Enjoy! (more…)
Acting on behalf of concerned members in New Mexico and out of concern for the integrity and credibility of the chiropractic profession at large, on December 21, 2011 the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) filed an extensive memorandum in support of a motion to stay what is being held to be illegal actions on the part of that state’s Board of Chiropractic Examiners. In its memorandum of explanation, ICA’s attorneys argued that it was important for the court to carefully consider the urgent issues of the letter of the law and the protection of both the public and chiropractic practitioners and prevent the “New Mexico Board of Chiropractic Examiners from implementing its new rule establishing an advanced practice formulary to include dangerous drugs and drugs to be administered by injection…and implementing its new rules establishing a certain course of training to certify advanced practice chiropractic physicians to administer and prescribe dangerous drugs and drugs to be administered by injection” because such actions were outside their authority under the law.
On August 30, 2011, at an official rulemaking hearing and meeting, the New Mexico Chiropractic Board adopted new rules to greatly expand the chiropractic formulary to include certain dangerous drugs and drugs to be administered by injection that had not been approved by either the New Mexico Medical or Pharmacy Boards as specifically required by state law. At that same hearing, lawyers representing the State of New Mexico were very clear in their advice that the Board was acting outside their authority and should not proceed. The Chiropractic Board ignored those admonitions and acted to adopt a new formulary anyway.
ICA representatives were present at both the August and December Board meetings and, in concert with New Mexico DCs, urged the Board to act only within the rules established by statute but to no avail. At their meeting of December 13, 2011, the New Mexico Chiropractic Board denied all requests to stay the implementation of the new rules pending appeal. ICA received official documentation of the New Mexico Chiropractic Board’s official denial of a request to stay the controversial rules on January 5, 2012. Having exhausted all administrative remedies, ICA is seeking the protection of the courts in the face of the Board’s questionable actions. (more…)
SOURCE: The American Chiropractic Association
By: Bobby Gibson, Director of Operations
United Healthcare (UHC) and Aetna recently sent out notices to providers detailing their new Multiple Therapy Reduction policies. These policies reduce the reimbursement for the practice expense portion of the relative value units (RVUs) for certain therapies beyond the first therapy billed. The rationale is that there is duplication of the practice expense portion of the RVU.
UHC and Aetna are following the lead of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) after it initiated a similar policy on Jan. 1, 2011. CMS originally proposed a reduction of the second and any subsequent therapy practice expense portions by 50 percent. When that policy was proposed, ACA partnered with other provider organizations to contact Congress to oppose the policy. Due to the large amount of opposition, CMS decided to lessen the reduction to 20 percent rather than the proposed 50 percent.
UHC’s policy will affect claims with a date of service on or after March 1, 2012 and will affect claims paid by United. It will not affect claims on any plans in which Optum processes or pays the claims or plans in which providers are paid a flat per diem visit fee. Aetna’s policy took effect November 14, 2011, and to the best of our knowledge affects all Aetna plans. To illustrate how this policy will play out, we have created the following hypothetical example: (more…)
