Eeric Truumees, MD, is the administrative and development council director for the North American Spine Society. He is a fellowship-trained orthopedic spine surgeon and practices at Seton Spine and Scoliosis Center in Austin, Texas.

Six spine surgeons talk about the biggest challenges for spine surgeons in terms of healthcare reform.

As many provider groups continue to call for another ICD-10 delay, or to abandon ICD-10 altogether, CMS has said the current deadline of Oct. 1, 2014 will stay intact, according to a letter (pdf) sent to AHIMA, a Chicago-based trade organization representing health information management professionals.

The Advisory Board has been tracking which hospitals, health systems and payors have adopted commercial bundled payment strategies, and currently, there are more than 30 different agreements.

Medicare dominated healthcare components of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address and was one of the largest targets in the Republican response delivered by Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

At the North American Spine Society's annual meeting in October, Charles Mick, MD, was named president for the next year. Dr. Mick is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who has been a member of NASS for 25 years. He practices at Pioneer Spine and Sports Physicians in Northampton, Mass., and is also a member of the Advocacy and Rehabilitation Interventional and Medical Spine Committees.

Because healthcare reform is setting up incentives for physicians, hospitals, patients, payors and employers to use telemedicine, telemedicine is positioned to be a "key enabler for widespread delivery of cost-effective, resource-efficient and high-quality healthcare," according to a Computer Sciences Corporation report.