Are You Registered Yet?

You won’t want to miss the Ohio Osteopathic Symposium next week! The April 23-25 conference offers an excellent agenda packed with informative and stimulating medical education sessions presented by experts in their field.

Lectures include:

• A Conversation on Palliative Care and Value of the Osteopathic Touch
• Understanding Mechanisms of Compassion Fatigue and Building Resilience
• Theories of a Pandemic: Lessons Repeated but not Learned
• What every physician should know about racial disparities in Ohio’s infant mortality crisis: Exploring patients’ voices and structural racism

Other topics address therapies for migraine, LGBTQ care, infant mortality, ocular trauma, and orthopedics.

With a slight adjustment to the Saturday schedule, the Symposium now provides a full 22 hours of programming, which means 22 hours of AOA Category 1-A credit. The daily hours are:

Friday • 7:45 am - 6:00 pm
Saturday • 7:45 am - 6:15 pm
Sunday • 8:00 am - 12:45 pm

Remember, the State Medical Board of Ohio has only delayed enforcement of CME requirements due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the requirements are not waived.

Register TODAY at www.OhioDO.org/cme.

Ohio Pauses J&J Vaccine

On Tuesday morning, Gov. Mike DeWine, Ohio Department of Health Director Stephanie McCloud, and Ohio Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, directed all Ohio vaccine providers to temporarily pause use of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine following a recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control. The recommendation was made after six people who received the J&J vaccine experienced an extremely rare blood-clotting condition in the United States. The cases have occurred in women between 18 and 48 and the reactions have taken place within 6-13 days after receiving the vaccine.

Approximately 6.8 million people have received the J&J vaccine in the US; 264,311 of those vaccinations were administered in Ohio. The majority of the Ohio’s doses were directed to mass vaccination clinics and to 63 public and private four-year colleges and universities, most of which have already completed their student vaccinations. 

Of the mass vaccination clinics and college/university clinics that planned to offer the J&J vaccine this week, most will proceed with their clinics by offering either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.  A total of eight sites did not offer any vaccines this week as the health community works to recognize, report, and manage any adverse events related to the J&J vaccine. 

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met Wednesday and did not take a vote on the recommendation from FDA and CDC to pause administration of the J&J vaccine. Committee members cited the need for more complete evidence to justify voting on the measure, while some cited concerns a continued indefinite pause would be detrimental to ensuring the country’s equitable vaccine rollout. AOA Liaison Stan Grogg, DO, provided an overview of the meeting.

Variants & Vaccinations

At the press briefing yesterday Gov. Mike DeWine announced that more than 36 percent of Ohioans have now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, however, Ohio’s statewide case incidence number has reached 200 cases per 100,000 people as compared to 144 cases per 100,000 people four weeks ago. There are currently more than 1,300 COVID-positive patients in Ohio’s hospitals.

“What we’re seeing in Ohio is a strong variant that is multiplying very quickly and is more contagious than the virus we’ve seen in the past, but we have hope, and hope is the vaccine,” DeWine said. “Vaccination is how we get out of this.”

Despite the recent increase, the state is far below the highest rate of 845.5 cases per 100,000 in mid-December.

The majority of the counties with the highest incidence of cases in Ohio are in the northern region of the state which is seeing a high level of variant cases. Lucas County is currently seeing the highest occurrence of cases with 341.1 cases per 100,000 county residents. 

Franklin County increased to  Level 4/Purple on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System map due to a sustained increase in COVID-related emergency room visits, outpatient visits, and hospital admissions.

There are a significant number of vaccine providers across the state with open vaccination appointments. Several sites are also accepting walk-up appointments including the mass vaccination clinic at Summit County’s fairgrounds, Franklin County’s regional mass vaccination clinic, and the Youngstown clinics at the Covelli Centre and Congregation Rodef Sholom Temple. Ohio’s mass vaccination clinic at the Wolstein Center in downtown Cleveland is also opening a two-day satellite vaccination clinic in the Cleveland suburbs. 

COVID Test Kits Available

The OOA is partnering with ActionPPE.org on a COVID test group buy at below market prices. These FDA-approved tests can be done in a physician office in 10 minutes and for as little as $15.55.

Reserve your COVID test kits today as stock will be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis. This one-time group purchase of 100k American-made COVID Antigen Test Kits are for medical professionals only.

Reserve yours today at https://actionppe.org/ohiodo. Remember to use the OOA discount code: OHIODO-SAVE5

Legislative Update

HB 122, which establishes and modifies requirements regarding telehealth services, unanimously passed the Ohio House of Representatives this week, 91-0. Sponsors of the bill said it codifies the expansion of telehealth access implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Separately, the Ohio Department of Medicaid reported that since emergency telehealth rules went into effect last year, more than 860,000 members made more than 5.8 million claims for online medical visits. Before the pandemic, there were fewer than 1,000 telehealth claims per month for physical health services and 4,000 telehealth claims per month for mental health and addiction services.

In other legislative news, the OOA participated in a stakeholder meeting with OSMA, Ohio ACEP, OHA, OSA, OAFP, and other physician organizations regarding a strategy to collectively address HB 193, which would require e-prescribing for all Schedule II drugs except in certain emergency situations. The collaboration is currently developing a list of exceptions for Rep. Al Cutrona’s bill. Please help this effort by taking the short health tech survey. Your willingness to share information related to your patient care benefits the OOA immensely. Please take the survey right away. 

Interesting to note that on the federal level, CMS is working on a new electronic prior authorization standard to allow prescribers to see that a drug is subject to prior authorization, while they are prescribing it. This policy change helps ensure there are secure electronic transactions between prescribers and Part D plan sponsors, and that patients will not experience delays when picking up their prescriptions.

Emergency Rule for the Delegation of Laser Hair Removal

Effective April 9, the State Medical Board of Ohio has adopted an emergency rule that allows physicians to continue to delegate laser hair removal to cosmetic therapists licensed by the Medical Board on or prior to April 11, 2021. This emergency rule will expire on August 8, 2021.

During this time, the Medical Board will also file permanent rules to allow physicians to continue delegation of laser hair removal to cosmetic therapists after the emergency rule expires.

This rule will not change the license status of Cosmetic Therapists due to HB 442. Effective April 12, 2021, cosmetic therapists are no longer licensed by the State Medical Board.

Please email contact@med.ohio.gov if you have questions.

HOD Reference Committees Meet

Twenty of your osteopathic colleagues have been busy this week reviewing proposed changes to the OOA bylaws and debating policy statements as part of the OOA House of Delegates.

The HOD will be held next week, on April 22. To prepare for that annual meeting, two reference committees met this week to make recommendations on 19 resolutions. OOA Vice President Jennifer L. Gwilym, DO, and OOA District Trustee Melinda E. Ford, DO, chaired the committees.

A total of 70 physicians and three medical students are expected to participate in this year’s virtual HOD.

The resolutions and HOD Manual with reference committee reports will be posted on Monday.