Chairman's Message => Spring 2002

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The Chairman's Message

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Spring 2002

Dear Colleagues,

The Florida Section of District IV of ACOG has had another great year. We had our District IV interim meeting in Jamaica, West Indies on March 8-10 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The meeting was very informative with reports from all of the Southeast Sections. A few things of note are that there has been a change in the nominating process and voting for section and district officers to parallel the national guidelines. If you have any question regarding this, please contact me.

Unfortunately, one of the major contributors to our specialty, A. Cullen Richardson, M.D., died this quarter. In his honor of his many contributions, an A. Cullen Richardson, M.D., Lectureship Fund has been formed. Physicians will be able to apply for this in the future.

Dues for the District have been raised to $85.00 per year for Fellows and $50.00 per year for Junior Fellows in practice. The primary issue of ACOG this year is medical liability and it has earmarked $1 million to manage this problem, so your college is actively working for you. Our own Ed Carney, M.D. has been recommended to be the head of District IV Maternal Mortality Committee. The College has finally formed a political action committee (PAC) called the "Physicians for Women's Health" and is asking all members to join for $25 annually. Please help support the PAC.

The news from the Florida Section is also good in that I have been able to show that managed care, (BC/BS) of Florida can recognize when problems arise and work with the section to remedy them. We were able to do this to allow for payment of assistant physicians and certified assistant personnel to be paid for cesarean sections. Please see the information below supplied by Walter Hollinger, M.D., the Medical Director for BC/BS, as it tells you how to code this appropriately. I personally want to thank him for his cooperation with this issue.

The following is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida's payment policy for surgical assistants during the performance of Cesarean Sections. The following business rules apply to the three CPT codes listed under Cesarean Delivery (CPT 2002).

     59510: Routine obstetric care including antepartum care, cesarean delivery, and postpartum care.
     Surgical assistants are not allowed with this global code.
     59514: Cesarean delivery only. Surgical assistants are allowed with this procedure code.
     59515: Including postpartum care. Surgical assistants are not allowed for this code.
     BCBSF does not allow surgical assistants to bill with global or package codes for their services. Surgical assistants billing 59510 or 59515 with the assistant modifier would be denied payment.
     However, it is appropriate for the obstetrician to bill with either of these global codes when providing those services and for the surgical assistant to the Cesarean Delivery to submit 59514 with the appropriate modifier. Surgical assistants would be reimbursed at 20 percent of the allowable when submitting a claim with a 59514 plus modifier.
NOTE: Generally, BCBSF covers per the subscriber's contract "Surgical Assistant Services" when rendered by a Physician, Registered Nurse First Assistant, or Physician Assistant when acting as a surgical assistant (provided no intern, resident, or other staff physician is available) when the assistant is necessary. The Allowed Amount for such is limited to 20 percent of the surgical procedures' Allowed Amount (Blue Choice COC). These reimbursement rules correspond to those of Medicare.

Many of you also will find out that William Spellacy, M.D., mentor and advisor to many of us in Florida, has decided to retire from his Department Chairmanships, but will continue on as a professor and teacher to the next generation of Ob/Gyn residents at the University of South Florida. We wish him well.

The Florida Section has been awarded the Wyeth-Ayerst Best Section National Award for its ongoing project with "Depression in Women." This is great as it is the first time Florida has won this national award. I personally want to thank Paul Gluck, M.D., and Ron Chez, M.DE., for their untiring work on this project. Congratulations again, Florida Section!

Lastly, The State of Florida is host for the next District IV meeting and it will be held in Miami on October 18-21, 2002. Manual Penalver, M.D., (Program Chairman) and Paul Gluck, M.D., (Local Arrangements Chairman) have lined up a great meeting. Be sure to put these dates on your calendars.