To keep our membership informed of the activities and health of the association, we are posting our most recent collection of NERVES committee reports. In this issue you will find the Communications Committee Report, the Education Committee Report, the Membership Committee Report, the Survey Committee Report, and the Washington Update.

Communications Committee Report

By Jon Nguyen, Secretary, Communications Committee Chair

For this upcoming year, we are working on a variety of initiatives. First, we have partnered with Thryv to manage our LinkedIn page. The goal of this partnership is to promote neurosurgical topics but also our members! Second, we are working to revise the NERVES website to reflect the partnership we have with our physician partners. Finally, we are making changes to the newsletter, which you will see now – a new member highlight.

Education Committee Report

By Jason Philip, Education Committee Chair

On the heels of a productive 2024 year in education for the Society, featuring the well-attended webinar, "Neurosurgery Coding Updates and ICD-10 Coding Scenarios" in March, the Education Committee is soliciting feedback for topics for this year. If you have not already responded to the survey, please share what educational topics are of interest to your organization at [email protected]. 

Membership Committee Report

By Sheryl Conticello, Membership Committee Chair

The Membership Committee is delighted to share three new members have joined the Committee – Rebecca Knox, Tanvir Sahsi, and Cindy Tabor. Members are the lifeblood of our organization! This spring, the Committee contacted all members who did not renew their membership with a personalized text message. The individuals who responded to the message shared the primary reason for their non-renewal is due to a position change outside of Neurosurgery. Looking ahead to this year, the Committee plans to continue to engage constituents from the Council of State Neurological Societies as we try to close the gap between representation of members and individual practices.

Do you know someone in Neurosurgery who is not a part of NERVES? Invite them to join and tell them the first year is free thanks to our partners at Rosman Search. Please use THANKSROSMAN as the coupon code!

Survey Committee Report

By Brent E. Patterson, CPA, NERVES Survey Chair

The Survey Committee has met several times since the Annual Meeting to prepare for the Annual Survey. In an effort to increase participation, the Survey Committee released a questionnaire to better understand barriers of participation and improve metrics gathered to help all members in their practices. (Did you know that if you participate you receive a free copy and you also help contribute to the most robust and comprehensive benchmarking tool available to our practices?) Throughout the summer, town halls have been hosted to better understand the needs of the membership. A tremendous amount of feedback was gathered in these efforts, which some recommendations will be put in place for the 2024 Survey. An email invitation to participate in this year’s Socio-economic Survey was sent on July 31. If you did not receive it, you can visit our site here for materials. The Survey Committee will be hosting open sessions to answer any questions as you complete your survey.

Washington Update

By Rebecca Ruegg Cowan, Washington Liaison

To streamline prior authorization for Medicare Advantage, reform legislation -- the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act (H.R. 8702 [congress.gov]) and S. 4532 [congress.gov] -- has been reintroduced. This bipartisan bill would codify and enhance elements of the Advancing Interoperability and Improving Prior Authorization Processes rule that was finalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) earlier this year.

The bill would:

• Establish an electronic prior authorization (e-PA) process for MA plans;
• Increase transparency around MA prior authorization requirements and their use;
• Provide a pathway for CMS to institute real-time decisions for routinely approved medical services;
• Clarify CMS’ authority to establish timeframes for e-PA requests; and
• Require several reports to Congress on program integrity efforts and other ways to improve the ePA process.

More information is available here [aans.org] and here [regrelief.org].

On July 10, 2024, CMS issued the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Rule. Neurosurgery is not scheduled to receive an overall cut. More information is available here [cms.gov].

The American Association of Neurological Surgeons [aans.org] (AANS) and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons [cns.org] (CNS) have appointed Charlotte Pineda as the new vice president of health policy and advocacy. Charlotte is taking over the role from Katie O. Orrico, who served as the AANS/CNS Washington representative for 39 years and was recently promoted to AANS CEO. More information is available here [aans.org]. NERVES looks forward to continuing our collaboration with Katie in her new role and working to further neurosurgery advocacy with Charlotte.