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Welcome to the Home Page of the Missouri Sleep Society!
Established in 2008, the Missouri Sleep Society is a non-profit, professional organization dedicated to the growth, improvement and advocacy for the field of sleep medicine in the state of Missouri.
2011 MO-KAN Sleep Conference - Great Success! AASM president, Nancy Collop, MD, providing keynote address Sleep Clinical News May 16, 2012
Study: Nearly 30% of US adults have had episodes of sleepwalking.USA Today (5/15, Lloyd) reports, "About 8.5 million adults in the" US "have experienced nighttime wanderings, and those with sleep apneas, psychiatric disorders, depression or obsessive compulsive disorders are at higher risk, finds the study of 19,136 Americans ages 18 and older." The Washington Post (5/15, Huget) "The Checkup" blog reports "Lead author Maurice Ohayon of Stanford University and colleagues asked more than 15,000 adults about whether they walked in their sleep and, if they did, how often." The researchers "also asked whether others in their family had histories of sleepwalking or about other sleep habits, overall health, mental-health issues and any medications they took." The Los Angeles Times (5/15, Mestel) "Booster Shots" blog reports that "29% of adults have had episodes of sleepwalking at some point in their lives and 3.6% of them report having done so in the last year." While "adult sleepwalking is far less common than childhood sleepwalking...the numbers still show that 'sleepwalking is much more prevalent in adults than previously appreciated,' the authors write." The Huffington Post (5/15, Pearson) reports, "A small group indicated they dealt with it regularly; 1 percent reported having two or more episodes per month." The findings "were published in the journal Neurology on Monday." The CNN (5/15) "The Chart" blog reports that the researchers "found that people who take a kind of antidepressant for anxiety called SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) had a higher likelihood of sleepwalking at least once per year." Individuals "who took over-the-counter sleeping pills and tricyclic antidepressants were more likely to experience sleepwalking at least twice per month." Meanwhile, HealthDay (5/15, Salamon) reports, "Participants who had experienced depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder were 3.5 times and 3.9 times more likely to sleepwalk, respectively, than people without the conditions, the study found." MedPage Today (5/15, Neale) reports, "The prevalence of nocturnal wandering generally decreased with age." WebMD (5/15, Doheny) reports, "The big surprise, Ohayon says, is that he found no link between prescription sleeping pills and sleepwalking. Other research has found such a link." Reuters (5/15, Seaman) points out that the study was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health.
Sleep Policy News April 27, 2012 The Scoring Manual FAQs page on the AASM website answers common questions about rules in the AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events. The answers serve to clarify the rules, and in cases where there is a discrepancy between the manual and the FAQs, the answers supercede the manual itself. View the Scoring Manual FAQs today to ensure that your approach to scoring is accurate. Implementation of CMS Specialty Code for Sleep MedicineAmerican Academy of Sleep MedicineWednesday, April 18, 2012In a recent email from staff at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the AASM was notified that the specialty code for sleep medicine will be implemented in May. As the AASM previously announced, CMS approved a specialty code for sleep medicine in Jan 2011. The implementation of the code, originally projected for Oct. 2011, was delayed last fall and scheduled to be implemented this month. CMS staff has indicated that the new code will be available via the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) in May. The paper enrollment form will be updated to include the new specialty code this October. Also in October, CMS will publish a Medicare Learning Network (MLN) article about the new code. The AASM will alert the membership of this article as soon as it is published. Establishing a physician specialty code for sleep medicine has a number of benefits for the field:
• The specialty code will enable more accurate identification of Medicare Physician fee Schedule (MPFS) practice expenses related to sleep medicine services.
• The specialty code will assist CMS in its peer-to-peer comparison of services from specific specialties and in claims adjudication.
• The specialty code will provide a more effective means of identifying episodes of care provided for patients with chronic sleep disorders, especially obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The AASM will provide members with additional details on the code implementation as they become available. Recognizing the value of participating in the Healthcare Innovation Challenge, the AASM’s Board of Directors devised a new, forward-thinking paradigm for clinical care of patients with OSA: the Innovation Care Delivery and Management Program for Patients with OSA(ICDMPPO). The ICDMPPO proposal was submitted in late January, and CMS will announce recipients of the Healthcare Innovation Challenge grants in late March. The ICDMPPO serves as the foundation for the future of clinical care as it represents a significant change in the testing algorithm for OSA as well as care delivery and management for patients with OSA. Under this new model, the board-certified sleep physician and the accredited sleep center serve as anchor points for the patient while maintaining communication with the primary care physician. The sleep medicine physician is responsible for managing the continuum of the patient’s sleep-related care, from the initial visit to the diagnostic test to equipment titration and long-term follow-up. Please read the proposal to learn more about the design of the ICDMPPO, the benefits for the sleep medicine field and patients, and how the program will be implemented if accepted by the CMS Center for Innovation. The AASM is also sharing this proposal with allied sleep organizations, members of Congress, and other organizations and companies with an interest in sleep, to educate these parties on the future direction of sleep medicine.
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