The American Hospital Association (AHA) is now an official program partner for the 2009 CAPC National Level I / II Seminar. This means that if you are an institutional, personal or associate AHA member, you can save $300 when registering for the CAPC National Seminar.

The AHA is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks and their patients and communities.

CAPC National Level I / II Seminar
Innovative Solutions for Tomorrow's Palliative Care Program

Date: October 22-24, 2009
Location: Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, GA

Register now for the CAPC National Level I / II Seminar and save up to $300 with early bird and special rates!

Every year the seminar offers new cutting-edge content and topics, as well as one-on-one access to expert faculty. Whether your program is active and established, or you're just at the planning stage, the seminar will provide you with essential operational training to ensure your program's growth and sustainability.

Call for Poster Abstracts! A special poster session and reception will be held at the CAPC National Level I / II Seminar. Learn more and access the poster abstract instructions here.
Learn more and register!

The Children's Miracle Network (CMN) and Delta Airlines have named Sarah E. Friebert, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM, as one of four national recipients of the Children's Miracle Achievement Award. Dr. Friebert received this prestigious award due to her efforts to alleviate pain and suffering and improve quality of life for patients and families facing serious and life-threatening illness.

Dr. Friebert is the leader of the Palliative Care Leadership Centers^TM at Akron Children's Hospital and director of the Haslinger Family Pediatric Palliative Care Center at Akron Children's Hospital. Congratulations Sarah!
Learn more

The United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has posted a draft of the strategic framework for Comparative Effectiveness Research. The document identifies end-of-life care as one of the key
under-researched interventions that requires attention.
View the document

The Citations section of the CAPC website has been
re-organized to assist users in finding relevant articles by the most frequently requested topics: Clinical Models, Service Delivery, Impact Research, Administrative Resources for program leaders and Pediatric Palliative Care.

A selection of key articles from all of these domains has been combined into a "Starter Pack," which is ideal for those who are in the exploratory phase of palliative care program development.
Access CAPC Citations

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has established a new physician specialty code for hospice care and palliative care. The new physician specialty code will be 17 and goes into effect October 1, 2009.

Physicians self-designate their Medicare physician specialty on the Medicare enrollment application (CMS-855I). Medicare specialty codes describe the specific types of medicine that physicians practice and are used by CMS for programmatic and claims processing purposes.
Learn more

CPT 2008 and CMS guidelines require provider documentation of face-to-face time with patients in order to use prolonged service billing codes (such as 356 and 357). In contrast, the 2009 CPT codes do permit providers to count non face-to-face time in prolonged services calculations (including time spent on unit in family meetings, time reviewing records, time communicating with other health professionals, etc).

However, until CMS adopts the 2009 CPT codes, all prolonged services codes must continue to be accompanied by documentation of face-to-face time with patients, and must also include start and stop times, not just total duration in minutes. We'll let you know when and if CMS adopts the 2009 CPT codes.

If you have additional information or resources on this issue, talk to us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/dianeemeier) and the CAPCconnect^TM Forum
(www.capc.org/forums/billing-and-financial/).

The Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) is pleased to announce Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD, FAAN, FPCN, as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing (JHPN), the official journal of HPNA. Dr. Ferrell will assume the official role of Editor-in-Chief on January 1, 2010.
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Sarah E. Friebert, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM, leader of the Palliative Care Leadership Centers^TM at Akron Children's Hospital and director of the Haslinger Family Pediatric Palliative Care Center at Akron Children's Hospital, has developed a comprehensive set of pediatric palliative care triggers. The triggers are divided into "automatic" and "suggested" categories by diagnosis and are meant to serve as guidelines. They are intended to provide clinicians with some parameters for palliative care referrals, as well as assist them in initiating and continuing dialogue with referral sources.
Learn more

The Medical College of Wisconsin End of Life / Palliative Education Resource Center (EPERC) announces its third annual call for applications to participate in its Medical School Palliative Care Education Project, funded by the Y.C. Ho/Helen and Michael Chiang Foundation. Three schools will be selected through a competitive application process. Each of the three funded schools will receive a $36,000 award to support curriculum development. The project is directed by Drs. David Weissman and Deborah Simpson.

Questions? Contact Judi Rehm, Project Manager, at jrehm@mcw.edu. Application deadline is August 14, 2009.
Learn more and apply

The New York Times, June 11, 2009; Doctor and Patient: Medicine in the Age of Twitter, by Pauline W. Chen, MD.

Television Week, April 21, 2009; Newshour Looks at the End: Terminal Cancer Patients Find Doctors Reluctant to Discuss Issue, by Allison J. Waldman.

CNN, April 10, 2009; Unapproved Morphine to Stay on Market, FDA Rules, by Saundra Young.

Palliative Care Leadership Centers^TM (PCLC) are nine leading palliative care programs that provide intensive, customized operational training and yearlong mentoring.

PCLC Custom and PCLC Consult are specifically customized for active programs, while PCLC Core is tailored to meet the needs of programs in the planning and start-up stages. PCLC Peds is for pediatric programs at every stage of development.
Learn more and enroll

The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) are awarding $1.5 million in research grants to researchers at eleven institutions. The grants will fund studies aimed at reducing suffering for seriously ill patients and their family caregivers. The 2009 grantees are:

• Harvard Medical School - Jennifer W. Mack, MD, MPH
• Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine - Kyle R. Allen, DO
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill - Edwin B. Fisher, PhD
• University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center - Marianne Matzo, PhD
• University of California, San Francisco - Michael Rabow, MD
• Harvard Medical School - Jennifer Temel, MD
• Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine - Jamie H. Von Roenn, MD
• Harvard Medical School - Jane L. Givens, MD, MCSE
• Brown University - Ramona Rhodes, MD, MPH
• Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice - Scott A. Irwin, MD, PhD
• University of California, San Francisco - Alexander K. Smith, MD, MPH

Mastering Communication with Seriously Ill Patients: Balancing Honesty with Empathy and Hope is authored by Anthony Back, MD, Robert Arnold, MD (past president of AAHPM) and James Tulsky, MD.

The book defines the specific communication tasks involved in talking with patients with serious and life-threatening illness and their families. Topics include delivering bad news, transitions to palliative care, discussing goals of advance-care planning, existential and spiritual issues, family conferences, medical futility and more.

"This book is a tour de force!" said Diane E. Meier, MD, director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care.
Learn more and purchase

The National Palliative Care Registry^TM is the only repository for national data depicting the operational features of hospital palliative care programs.

Make sure your program is counted! Over 400 programs have already participated. Your program's data are strictly confidential; all reporting is aggregate and anonymous. Registering your program is free.
Register now

CAPC Campus Online^TM provides online CME/CE courses for programs at every stage. Whether you have an active program, or you're planning or starting a program, CAPC Campus Online^TM offers courses that will make a difference to your professional development. Courses cover operational and financial essentials, including billing and coding, hospital cost avoidance, updating your business plan and more.

Enroll now and pay only $35 per course, per student.
Learn more and enroll

Follow and communicate with CAPC Director, Diane E. Meier, MD, as she posts comments and questions about a variety of palliative care topics, including health policy reform and the FDA threats to opioids. To get started:

1. Go to http://twitter.com/DianeEMeier
2. Login to Twitter or Join Today
3. Once you are logged in, click "follow" at http://twitter.com/DianeEMeier

Past Audio Conference CDs — Select CDs $30 each!
Here's your chance to get a permanent copy of select past audio conferences, burned right on a CD in MP3 format. Just $30 each (original price: $90).
Order Now

A Guide to Building a Hospital-Based Palliative Care Program — 2 for 1!
Known as The Guide, this comprehensive manual provides step-by-step guidance for building and managing a successful palliative care program. Receive two copies of The Guide for the price of one!
Order Now

Making the Financial Case for Pediatric Palliative Care
Thursday, July 30, 2009
1:30-2:30 PM Eastern

Featured Speaker:
Sarah E. Friebert, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM
Director, A Palette of Care Program
Haslinger Division of Pediatric Palliative Care
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Akron Children's Hospital
Palliative Care Leadership Centers^TM
Akron, OH
Learn more and register


Live Encore Presentation!
Palliative Care Team Self-Care: Avoiding Burnout
Thursday, August 13, 2009
1:30-2:30 PM Eastern

Featured Speaker:
Lyn Ceronsky, MS, GNP-BC
System Director and Nurse Practitioner
Palliative Care Program, Fairview Health System
Principal Investigator, Palliative Care Leadership Centers^TM
Fairview Health System
Minneapolis, MN
Learn more and register