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PMNews
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PM News |
The Voice of Podiatrists
Serving Over 9,000 Podiatrists Daily
February 09, 2007 #2,806 Editor-Barry Block, DPM, JD
A service of Podiatry Management http://www.podiatrym.com E-mail us by hitting the reply key. COPYRIGHT 2007- No part of PM News can be reproduced without the express written permission of Kane Communications, Inc.
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Aetrex Introduces New iStep Podiatry Kiosk
Aetrex is proud to introduce the iStep Evolution-Rx, the most advanced digital footcare kiosk ever developed for podiatric practices. This patented technology is designed to facilitate and enhance your footwear and orthotic services and features products from many world renowned companies. Designed in conjunction with The Walking Company and leading podiatrists, iStep Evolution-Rx will help you provide a higher level of patient care, generate substantial additional revenue, increase office efficiency and modernize your practice.
To learn more click here http://www.aetrex.com/rx
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PODIATRISTS IN THE NEWS |
Bradley, Willens to Receive DSC’s
The American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) has announced that Charles Bradley, D.P.M. and Sheldon Willins, D.P.M. will receive Distinguished Service Citations (DSC) at the upcoming APMA House of Delegates (March 23-6, 2007) in Washington, DC. The DSC is the highest honor that the association presents.
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Dr. Charles Bradley |
Dr. Charles Bradley served as President of the APMA from 1974-5 and was instrumental in the founding of the podiatric section of the National Academies Practice.
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Dr. Sheldon Willens |
Dr. Sheldon Willens served as President of the APMA from 1996-7 and served as a director of the Podiatry Political Action Committee ffrom 1985 to 2005.
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New Stylish, Washable, Elastic Shoes
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Orthofeet is introducing attractive, elastic shoes that are designed for diabetic patients, who need extra protection, but do not want to compromise on appearance.
The new elastic shoes are designed with unique features:
- Non-binding elastic vamp provides a loose fit at the forefoot, and ease pressure on swollen feet, bunions and hammer-toes.
- Firm heel counter offers excellent rearfoot support and stability.
- Washable: The shoes are made of synthetic materials that can be washed in look warm water.
- Four widths, including Women's Extra-Extra-Wide and Men's Narrow.
- Competitive prices- Shoes: $4200; Prefab inserts: $895; Custom inserts: $2200
For more information call 800-524-2845 or visit our website: www.orthofeet.com
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AT THE COLLEGES |
Dr. Daniel Bareither Receives APMSA’s Kenison Award
The American Podiatric Medical Students’ Association has selected Daniel Bareither, PhD, to receive the APMSA’s most distinguished honor, the Kenison Award. Dr. Bareither, Associate Dean of Curriculum and Assessment and Professor in the Department of Basic Biomedical Sciences at Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine, has done much to advance the profession of podiatry since his career began at the College in 1972.
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Daniel Bareither, PhD |
Dr. Bareither’s contributions to the profession include appointments to the Council on Podiatric Medicine and Education, the National Board of Podiatric Medical Education, and the American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine
The APMSA Kenison Award, named for Nehemiah Kenison, a visionary and leader in the profession of chiropody in the mid 1800’s, recognizes individuals who have made outstanding efforts and contributions to podiatric medical students and the profession.
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Dia-Foot--Innovative Solutions for Diabetics
Dia-Foot continues to expand its line on premium products Podiatrists can dispense to their patients. Dia-Foot this month introduced the Glucocom glucose Meter. This newly introduced meter features a 7 second glucose reading and a telemonitoring system. Once the meter is dispensed to your patient your office orders the strips and lancets on a quarterly basis from Dia-Foot depending on the number of times the patient's PCP wants the patient to test their sugars a day. Your net profit for a patient who tests 2x a day is over $300 a year! Combine that with our Diabetic Shoe and Custom insert package and your profit per patient is over $500 each year. For more details call 877-405-3668 ext. 103.
Dia-Foot features only premium SADMERC Diabetic Shoes from New Balance, Hush Puppies, Rockport, Dunham, Aetrex, Apex, Soft Spots and Dunham. Go to www.dia-foot.com or call 877-405-3668.
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HEALTHCARE FRAUD NEWS |
Anti-Fraud Measures Are Coming to Electronic Health Records Systems
Electronic health record (EHR) systems may soon contain features that will assist in the prevention and detection of billing errors and fraud. Fifteen proposed anti-fraud requirements have been drafted under the auspices of the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology, and could be headed for inclusion in EHR systems.
The requirements cover a range of risk areas. There is a requirement for evaluation and management coding, which says the system may inform physicians when their E&M codes don't match their documentation, but they can't tell physicians to add documentation. "It is appropriate for EHRs to calculate an evaluation and management (E&M) code from the encounter data which has been entered and to indicate the basis for that calculation. However, it is not appropriate to suggest to the provider that certain additional data, if entered, would increase the level of the E&M code," the draft states.
In addition, there is a requirement on copying notes (also known as cloning or cutting and pasting). When physicians copy an existing note about a patient and paste it into another chart entry as a shortcut with updating required, they must retain the date, time and user stamp of the original author, the requirement states. If it's copied from another patient, the original patient ID should not be kept. The draft rationale: "Copying and pasting all or a portion of a previous note is a provider efficiency tool. This process can be abused by appearing to attribute observations made by a previous provider to the current provider. If the intent is simply to provide common terminology or phraseology for reuse, templates or defaults may be used for this purpose."
Source: Report on Medicare Compliance [2/5/07]
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MEETINGS / COURSES
The 2007 Annual Cherry Blossom Dermatology Seminar will be held in Washington DC at Washington Hospital Center on the weekend of April 28 and 29th. The meeting is sponsored by the American Society of Podiatric Dermatology.
Highlights will include lectures by Richard Scher, MD past president of the American Academy of Dermatology, Elizabeth Dugan, MD head dermatopathologist of WHC Melanoma Center. We are also very excited that we have the top podiatrists to discuss everything dermatology. They include Dock Dockery DPM, Harvey Lemont, DPM, Warren Joseph, DPM, Mark Kosinski, DPM, and John Steinberg, DPM, Wayne Caputo, DPM and more! We also have lectures by Todd Perkins, MD, Yolanda Holmes, MD, Ben Lockshin, MD and dermatology coding by David Freedman, DPM .
For further information and registration contact Dr. Joel Morse at foxhallfoot@aol.com or call 202-966-4811. The ASPD website will be up shortly.
For a list of all meetings go to: www.podiatrym.com/meetings.pdf
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QUERIES |
Query: Exertional Compartment Syndrome
I have a 16 year old female sprinter and pole vaulter who has been seen by an orthopedist and given a tentative diagnosis of exertional compartment syndrome. It is only present (for the last two years) when she trains or exercises, and is in the deep posterior compartment of her leg, possibly the soleus muscle. She has seen a physical therapist and deep massage and Biofreeze helps alleviate her pain, but it comes back whenever she begins high intensity training.
On exam, she has only minimal discomfort medial and laterally along her soleus near the myotendinous junction of her gastrocnemius. She is currently in orthotics for moderate pronation, but cannot wear these at competitions due to pole vaulting regulations. She has not anterior leg pain with or without her orthotics. Besides rest and change of activities, is there any other non-surgical treatment that anyone has found effective for this exercise-induced problem. Cory Pilling, DPM, Twin Falls, ID
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RESPONSES / COMMENTS |
RE: Radiographs for Nail Pathology (Allen Jacobs, DPM) From: Multiple Respondents
When presented with an infected ingrown toenail greater than 10 days, I will usually obtain digital radiographs and place the patient on oral antibiotics. If less than 10 days, I will simply perform a partial nail avulsion without oral antibiotics and without films. I have come across radiographic changes only once and take them more as a baseline in "in case."
I have a hard time accepting that 15% show "bony changes", this number seems much too high. If radiographic changes for osteo lag 10-14 days. I can't make sense of these findings. I find the biopsy results even more puzzling.
Jeffrey Kass, DPM, Forest Hills, NY, Jeffckass@aol.com
I rarely take x-rays for a paronychia regardless of the time it has been present. When I do it is when the morphology of the nail is suspicious for a subungual neoplasm, subungual hemorrhage is noted, a suspicion of CVD or seronegative arthropathy exists or the clinical picture demonstrates a more virulent infection (sinus tracts, massive edema, proximally extending cellulitis). I keep it simple, I treat the patient. If the infection does not improve after a partial nail avulsion/I&D in a patient with normal vascular status and immune system then I look for zebras. To take x-rays routinely seems purely, as one poster stated, as a way to increase revenues. As to the 15% of patients I must be missing with osteomyelitis, geez my nail avulsion technique should be investigated since it seems to cure bone infections. The morphology of the distal tuft can be quire variable and we must use caution when making the diagnosis of possible osteomyelitis radiographically and subjecting them to unnecessary antibiotics, imaging, surgical biopsy, or worse.
Samuel S. Mendicino, DPM, Houston, TX, DrSMendo@aol.com
I do not know Dr. Allen Jacobs very well, but I believe him to be a very straight shooter who is not afraid to state what he believes. Having said that, I would bet that his last two posts on the cryotherapy s/p surgery on the smoking diabetic with PVD and this last one on the nail pathology radiology studies are perhaps a little "test" of what his colleagues "think."
He poses a 15% bony involvement issue with nail infections greater than 10 days old. I am certain that in the past 10 years, I have seen more nail unit tumors attendant to non-healing nail infections than I have seen any type of bone pathology, and the number of tumors I have seen is easily less than one out of a hundred. As an aside, I have even considered doing some kind of study as to why very serious and long term(months) nail infections in otherwise healthy individuals NEVER in my experience have progressed to osteomyelitis. I believe routine radiology for "nail pathology" is overkill, and even in the presence of an exostosis, most often the nail procedure is enough.
Quite co-incidentally, I have on my schedule this week a case of a very successful phenol matricectomy performed by me which failed to relieve the patient's pain. X-ray revealed quite a large exostosis, which I will be excising. Had I had the radiographs before the phenol surgery, I would have proceeded in the same way. In any case, Dr. Jacobs, do I read you correctly?
Bryan Markinson, DPM, NY, NY, Bryan.Markinson@msnyuhealth.org
Osteitis associated with chronic nail infection may be identified by the use of GOOD QUALITY radiographs, which frankly many offices do not obtain. Cortical breaks or irregularity, not massive dissolution of bone, is the main finding. I am certain that unrecognized cases in otherwise healthy people go on to uneventful healing, with or without antibiotics or surgical intervention. Nevertheless, the anatomical proximity of the phalanx to the soft tissue infection is such that if sought, osteitis/localized osteomyelitis is not at all uncommon. Such infections when present are easily treated by simple distal extension of the classic Winograd/Frost type of toenail correction, extended C+S directed oral antibiotic monitoring, and careful observation.
Allen Jacobs, DPM, St. Louis, MO, Allenthepod@sbcglobal.net
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CODINGLINE CORNER
CURRENT TOPICS BEING DISCUSSED ON CODINGLINE'S LISTSERV INCLUDE:
o Blue Cross Consultation Overcoding o Missed Appointments o Admitting Physician - Surgeon - Global Care o California Medicare: CPT 11055-11057 o Blue Shield of Minnesota Provider Denials
Codingline subscription information can be found at http://www.codingline.com/subscribe.htm
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CLASSIFIED ADS |
ASSOCIATE WANTED FOR SOUTH MIAMI AREA
Large group, busy, multi-office, partner potential. Motivated applicants only. Mail resumes and letters of intent to 999 N. Krome Avenue, Homestead , FL 33030. July start time OK, sooner preferable. E-mail lianadpm2@aol.com
ASSOCIATE WANTED - NORTH CAROLINA , CHARLOTTE AREA
Incredible opportunity to join a busy, well-established group practice. Looking for a self-motivated, hard-working individual seeking to become a partner. Hospital and surgery center privileges. Salary plus percentage, 401k and real estate opportunities. Send CV to universityoffice@ bellsouth.net
ASSOCIATE POSITION -MINNESOTA – PRIME MINNEAPOLIS SUBURB
Busy, well-established, full-scope podiatry practice, seeking highly motivated podiatrist for a full-time position with potential partnership opportunity. Looking for PSR 24+ individual. Excellent opportunity for long-term growth with unlimited income potential. E-mail CV to employment@associatedpodiatrists.com or fax to (612) 866-5875 Attn. Jennifer.
ASSOCIATE POSITION- KANSAS CITY, MO
Excellent opportunity for a hard working, ethical podiatrist to join a vibrant, successful and growing podiatric medical and surgical practice. Dedicated, supportive staff with strong marketing and medical knowledge. Must be board eligible/certified. PSR/24. Partnership opportunity. Competitive salary, bonus structure, benefits. Wonderful place to raise a family. Fax CV to 816-455-8901
ASSOCIATE POSITION – MISSISSIPPI
Well established, busy, 3-doctor practice seeks PSR 12 or 24 trained podiatrist for associate position to fill vacancy of retiring member. East central location is a great area to raise a family and is a prime location for accessibility to several major cities. Competitive salary, benefits, and incentives. Partnership possible in 2 years to right individual. June - July start date. Applicant must be ethical, personable, and motivated. Please E-mail CV and letter of intent to shanegan@bellsouth.net
ASSOCIATE POSITION – NEW YORK & CONNECTICUT
Opportunity to be a part of a prestigious and well-established large Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation practice, with locations in Stamford, CT and West Harrison, NY. Looking for a podiatrist to join an already busy practice with opportunity to build. We have state-of-the-art offices with MRI, digital x-ray, paperless charts, physical and occupational therapy. Applicants should be Board Certified or Board Eligible. Competitive salary and benefits. For further information on the practice, log onto WWW.NYCONNORTHO.COM Interested candidates should forward their C.V. to: Cliff Katz, Executive Director ckatz@nyconnortho.com
ASSOCIATE POSITION- WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA
Position available for PSR 24/36 trained DPM to join the Podiatry Service of the largest multi-specialty Rural Health Group Practice in Florida. Good salary/incentive compensation and excellent fringe benefits plan, which includes paid vacation days, CME dollars and much more. EOE/DFWP Send CV and letter of interest to: MCRHS, P.O. Box 499, Parrish, FL 34219 or fax to (941) 776-4013.
ASSOCIATE POSITION - SOUTH CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA-PM & S 36
Large, busy podiatry group looking for associate interested in future partnership. Practice facilities and technologies include: Surgical Center, Physical Therapy Department, six appointment locations, EMR, MRI and Digital X-ray. Full compensation and benefit package offered. Mail CV to Martin Foot and Ankle, 1203 S. Queen St. York, PA 17403 or email business administrator, johnreitzel@comcast.net
WEEKLY SPECIAL - One week of ads (5x) for only $75
PM Classified Ads Reach over 9,000 DPM's and Students
Whether you have used equipment to sell or our offering an associate position, PM News classified ads are the fastest, most-effective way of reaching over 9,000 DPM's. Write bblock@podiatrym.com or call (718) 897-9700 for details. Note: For commercial or display ads contact David Kagan at (800) 284-5451 dekagan@aol.com
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PODIATRY MANAGEMENT'S AFFORDABLE ONLINE CME
You can Earn 15 CPME-Approved CME credits Online for only $139(Less than $14 per credit) http://www.podiatrym.com/cme.cfm Choose any or ALL of over 20 CME articles posted You Can Now Take Tests and Print Your CME Certificates Online
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Disclaimers |
Acceptance and publication by this newsletter of an advertisement, news story, or letter does not imply endorsement or approval by Barry Block or Kane Communications of the company, product, content or ideas expressed in this newsletter. Podiatric Medical News does not represent the views, and is a separate entity from Podiatry Management Magazine and Podiatry Management Online. Any information pertaining to legal matters should not be considered to be legal advice, which can only be obtained via individual consultation with an attorney. Information about Medicare billing should be confirmed with your State CAC.
THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE INDIVIDUAL OR
ENTITY TO WHICH IT IS ADDRESSED AND MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT IS
PRIVILEGED, CONFIDENTIAL AND EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE.
If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an
employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination,
distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly
prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please
immediately notify me and you are hereby instructed to delete all
electronic copies and destroy all printed copies.
DISCLAIMER: Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be
either timely or free of viruses.
| Guidelines |
- To Post a message, send it to: bblock@podiatrym.com
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- Subscribers are reminded that they have an ethical obligation to disclose any potential conflicts of interest when commenting on any product, procedure, or service.
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