The ISASS Board is pleased to announce that Morgan P. Lorio, MD, FACS, of Bristol, Tennessee, will chair the new Coding & Reimbursement Task Force. Dr. Lorio is in private practice, and also is an assistant clinical professor at East Tennessee State University.

A graduate of Louisiana State University, Dr. Lorio completed his general surgical internship and orthopedic residency at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and completed the Simmons Spine Fellowship and a clinical practice fellowship with Dr. Hanson Yuan at the Health Science Center in Syracuse, NY. He also completed a hand and microsurgery fellowship at The Hand Center of Western New York and received additional training in plastic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Lorio is board certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (with a Certificate of Added Qualifications in Hand Surgery), and the American Board of Spine Surgery, and is a member of ISASS, as well as the North American Spine Society, the Simmons Surgical Society, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and the Orthopedic Trauma Association.

The Coding & Reimbursement Task Force is charged with: 1.) identifying spinal surgery-related coding and reimbursement issues that may adversely impact patient access to medically indicated spine surgeries; 2.) developing for the Board’s approval advocacy action plans on the society’s behalf to address those issues; and, 3.) assisting in the execution of those advocacy actions plans as appropriate and necessary.

The full roster of the Task Force includes:

• Josh Auerbach, MD, New York, NY
• Doug Beard, MD, Fort Collins, CO
• Mauro Cataletto, MD, Minneola, NY
• Terrence Julien, MD, Morgantown, WV
• Scott Kitchel, MD, Eugene, OR
• Richard Kube, MD, Peoria, IL
• Isadore Lieberman, MD, Plano, TX
• Morgan Lorio, MD, Bristol, TN – Chair
• Paul Park, MD, Ann Arbor, MI
• Tony Schnuerer, PA, San Diego, CA
• Paul Schwaegler, MD, Seattle, WI

In addition to our ISASS members, the Task Force has created an advisory body of coding & reimbursement experts to help inform its priorities and activities. This advisory body includes:

• Barbara Cataletto, MBA, Minneola, NY
• Jolayne Fisher, Woodbury, MN
• Kelli Hallias, Minnetonka MN
• Tim Hunter, Washington, DC
• Cindy Vandenbosch, Billings, MT
• Jen Varela, San Diego, CA

The Task Force welcomes ideas and input for its agenda and activities. If there is a coding or reimbursement issue that you wish to bring to the Task Force’s attention, please contact Liz Vogt at liz@isass.org.