March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month - is your practice or office organized to support either the delivery of, or referrals for, colorectal cancer screening and follow-up? Several resources are available to help practitioners and their office staff improve their practices' support for colorectal cancer screening.
What Can You Do? To help improve office practice to support either the delivery of or recommendations for colorectal cancer screening, please review the "What You Should Know about Screening for Colorectal Cancer: A Primary Care Clinician's Evidence-Based Toolbox and Guide<http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PRO/content/PRO_4_1x_ColonMD_Clinicians_Manual.pdf.asp>," which was developed by the American Cancer Society, Thomas Jefferson University, and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable. More Information for Healthcare Professionals: * MLN Guide to Medicare Preventive Services for Healthcare Professionals<http://www.CMS.gov/MLNProducts/downloads/mps_guide_web-061305.pdf> (see Chapter 11) * MLN Preventive Services Educational Products webpage<http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNProducts/35_PreventiveServices.asp> * MLN Cancer Screenings Brochure<http://www.cms.gov/MLNProducts/downloads/Cancer_Screening.pdf> * MLN Quick Reference Information: Medicare Preventive Services<http://www.cms.gov/MLNProducts/downloads/MPS_QuickReferenceChart_1.pdf> * National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable<http://nccrt.org/> * National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month website<http://preventcancer.org/prevention/preventable-cancers/colorectal-cancer/> Colorectal cancer is preventable, treatable, and beatable. Encourage your patients to get screened - it could save their lives. ________________________________ It's Not too Late to Give and Get the Flu Vaccine. Take advantage of each office visit and protect your patients against the seasonal flu. Medicare will continue to pay for the seasonal flu vaccine and its administration for all Medicare beneficiaries through the entire flu season. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also recommends that patients, healthcare workers and caregivers be vaccinated against the seasonal flu. Protect your patients. Protect your family. Protect yourself. Get the Flu Vaccine-Not the Flu. Remember - The flu vaccine plus its administration are covered Part B benefits. CMS has posted the 2011-2012 seasonal flu vaccine payment limits at http://www.CMS.gov/McrPartBDrugAvgSalesPrice/10_VaccinesPricing.asp. Note that the flu vaccine is NOT a Part D-covered drug. For more information on coverage and billing of the flu vaccine and its administration, as well as related educational provider resources, visit http://www.CMS.gov/MLNProducts/35_PreventiveServices.asp and http://www.cms.gov/immunizations. ________________________________ Note: If you have problems accessing any hyperlink in this message, please copy and paste the URL into your Internet browser. If you know someone who would like to subscribe to a Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) provider listserv, go to (http://www.cms.gov/prospmedicarefeesvcpmtgen/downloads/Provider_Listservs.pdf). If you would like to unsubscribe from a specific provider listserv, please go to (https://list.nih.gov/cgi-bin/wa.exe?INDEX) to unsubscribe or to leave the appropriate listserv. Please DO NOT respond to this email. This email is a service of CMS and routed through an electronic mail server to communicate Medicare policy and operational changes and/or updates. Responses to this email are not routed to CMS personnel. Inquiries may be sent by going to (http://www.cms.gov/ContactCMS). Thank you.
