AAOS Launches New Resident Advocacy Fellowship

Matthew Snider, Esq.

Increasing resident engagement is a priority for AAOS, and recruiting more residents into advocacy efforts represents an important step forward in that direction. With that in mind, the AAOS Office of Government Relations (OGR) recently launched a Resident Advocacy Fellowship.

The CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating System

Jasmine Saleh, MD, MPH; Andrew Krause, MD; Zain Sayeed, MD, MHA; Muhammad T. Padela, MD, MSc; Khaled J. Saleh, MD, MSc, FRCS(C), MHCM, CPE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings (Star System) are an effort to improve quality and efficiency of care for patients. The CMS Star System is based on 57 existing quality measures reported on the CMS Hospital Compare website. By summarizing complex quality data into a single star rating, CMS hopes to provide consumers with an understandable way to compare hospital performance.

Orthopaedic Surgery and the Physician Payments Sunshine Act

Thomas J. Parisi, MD, JD; Daniel Levy; Richard W. Rutherford, MD; Jason Jennings, MD; Douglas A. Dennis, MD; Harry E. Rubash, MD

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act (PPSA), a component of the Affordable Care Act, is a disclosure law requiring drug, device, and biologic companies to report transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Companies began recording data in 2013, and datasets are released annually on the Open Payments database (OPD).

U.S. Senate Approves New HHS Secretary

Elizabeth Fassbender, Esq.

On Jan. 24, 2018, the U.S. Senate approved Alex Azar as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by a 55-43 vote. Mr. Azar, who spent much of his career in the pharmaceutical industry, fills the vacancy left by former secretary Tom Price, MD. Mr. Azar previously held high-level positions at HHS during the George W. Bush administration and is the former president of the U.S. division of drug manufacturer Eli Lilly and Company.

The Role of the AMA in Orthopaedic Advocacy

John Early, MD

The American Medical Association (AMA), in its purest form, is a deliberative body where all state societies and national specialty societies come together to craft policy for the education and practice of medicine in the United States. Potential policies are made and voted on by the delegates. Although the AMA's influence has declined, it is still an important avenue for establishing healthcare policy within the halls of government.

Second Look – Advocacy

These items originally appeared in AAOS Headline News Now, a thrice-weekly enewsletter that keeps AAOS members up to date on clinical, socioeconomic, and political issues, with links to more detailed information. Subscribe at www.aaos.org/news/news.asp (member login required). The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a clarification to its policy on texting by healthcare providers.