Have you heard the news?

Mother’s Day is not just a time to remember how women have cared for their families. It’s also a time to remember what women need to do to care for themselves.

For more than a decade, Americans have watched the overall cancer death rate drop lower and lower with each passing year. As a Nation, progress has been measured not just in the lives saved, but also in the shared moments – patients lifted up by the promise of remission, parents blessed with the chance to watch their children grow up, young people confident that a diagnosis cannot put a limit on their dreams. But even with the gains that have been made, there is more work to do when more than half a million Americans lose their lives to cancer every year.

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month.

A new special innovation project in West Virginia will focus on reducing hospital readmission rates by for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

February is American Heart Month; a month to spread awareness about the importance of heart health. Each year, countless American families are impacted by heart disease and stroke. Although its risk factors can be prevented or controlled, it is still the leading cause of death for all Americans. Fortunately, there are many simple steps we can take to prevent heart disease such as eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, and not smoking.

Since 1970, January has been recognized as National Blood Donor Month to honor donors and stress the importance of blood donation.

Medicare consumers have the right to good, quality health care. Make one of your new year’s resolutions to get to know your Medicare rights and what to do if you think they’re being violated.

This November, the West Virginia Medical Institute is proud to support American Diabetes Month, a time to raise awareness of this ever-growing disease. For too many Americans, diabetes is thought of as a minor hindrance rather than a life-changing condition. By raising awareness of the seriousness of this disease, as well as sharing important preventative measures that can be implemented now to decrease your chances of developing diabetes, together we can come together as a community to Stop Diabetes.

This October, the West Virginia Medical Institute (WVMI) is proud to support National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time to promote regular mammograms to increase early detection of breast cancer. It is also a time to educate people about ways to reduce their risk, empower communities to join the fight, and a time to celebrate breast cancer survivors.

America’s health care system is making progress in embracing health information technology (health IT). That’s according to a July 2012 study by the National Center for Health Statistics, which found more than half (55 percent) of providers made the transition to using electronic health records (EHRs) in their patient’s care. These clinicians are leveraging health IT to achieve the meaningful use of EHRs in order to improve the population’s health, improve patient health and reduce health care costs. Of these providers, more than 140,000 providers in all specialty areas are partnering with 62 Health IT Regional Extension Centers (RECs) in this modernization effort.

Adult immunizations are one of the most effective ways to stay healthy. August is recognized as National Immunization Awareness Month to increase awareness about immunizations across the lifespan.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in partnership with Medscape, is offering CME credit for two webinar modules dealing Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse. Continuing education credit can be earned for any user registered as a doctor or health care professional. Medscape accounts are free. Registration is on the landing page of www.medscape.com.

The two modules are:
1. Reducing Medicare and Medicaid Fraud and Abus: Protecting Practices and Patients.
2. How CMS is Fighting Fraud: Major Program Integrity Initiatives

Pneumonia can be deadly to older Americans, and it can strike at any time of year, according to West Virginia Medical Institute, the state’s Medicare Quality Improvement Organization. Fortunately, seniors can fight back in spring, summer, fall or winter by getting the pneumonia shot.

The WV Bureau for Public Health Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology is sponsoring a Long Term Care Infection Prevention and Control Training in several areas of the state. The focus will be Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms. There is no cost associated with this training. 5.5 CEU/CE; 6 Registered Sanitarians will be awarded to those who complete the training. These trainings are on-site at the locations below. To register for this training, visit wv.train.org.

7/26/12 - Days Inn, Flatwoods
8/3/12 - Judge Black Annex on Market Street, Parkersburg
8/8/12 - John XXII Pastoral Center, Charleston
9/6/12 - Monongalia CHD, Morgantown
10/4/12 - Country Inn and Suites, Beckley
10/25/12 - Cabell Huntington, Huntington

Medicare consumers have the right to good, quality health care. Make sure you get to know your Medicare rights and what to do if you think they are being violated.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has recently requested that WVMI return any cases forwarded for prepayment review to the MAC. 

Effective immediately, we will return such cases to the sender.  Should we receive further direction from CMS we will post a message.

President Barack Obama officially proclaimed April as National Cancer Control Month. According to a press release issued on April 2, 2012 from the White House, President Obama is encouraging “citizens, government agencies, private businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other interested groups to join in activities that will increase awareness of what Americans can do to prevent and control cancer.”

This month marks the 13th annual National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and the West Virginia Medical Institute is helping to spread the word that the second leading cause of cancer death for both men and women in West Virginia is highly preventable.

February is National Heart Month