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August 18, 2010

MAFP E-BULLETIN, August, 2010, VOL.4, NO.8

In this issue:

AAFP 2010 Scientific Assembly Denver: A Celebration of Family Medicine

 

Request from Med Chi: Voice Your Complaints About Onerous Insurance Practices

 

Maryland Healthcare Professionals Immunization Initiative: Apply for a $1,000 Grant

 

Position Announcement

 

Environmental Scan and News You Can Use

 

AAFP 2010 Scientific Assembly Denver: A Celebration of Family Medicine

As the 2010 AAFP Scientific Assembly quickly approaches, perhaps you are considering this quality CME and networking opportunity provided by the national organization. All details at www.aafp.org/assembly. Also, the AAFP Congress of Delegates will meet two-days prior to the 2010 Assembly to enact policy and elect officers. Policies are enacted from resolutions put forth by state chapters and constituency groups, as well as from commission and board recommendations. The process is efficient and quite fascinating. Members are encouraged to participate by attending and even to provide testimony at reference committee meetings. All details at www.aafp.org/congress. Your Maryland delegation (list follows) would like to hear from you, prior to the event, regarding your thoughts on the various issues and candidates. Please contact them via the MAFP office at info@mdafp.org or 410-747-1980.

President: Eugene J. Newmier, M.D., Cambridge
Senior Delegate: William P. Jones, M.D., Davidsonville
Junior Delegate: Howard E. Wilson, M.D., Bowie
Senior Alternate Delegate: Adebowale G. Prest, M.D., Hebron
Junior Alternate Delegate: Yvette L. Rooks, M.D., Baltimore
Executive Director: Esther Rae Barr, CAE, Baltimore 

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Request from Med Chi: Voice Your Complaints About Onerous Insurance Practices

Over the past two months, many of you have demonstrated your support for MedChi’s efforts to petition the Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) for a formal review of some of the onerous insurance practices that interfere with the patient-provider relationship. Intended to contain costs, these practices – including prior-authorization, pre-certification, step therapy and therapeutic switching – create significant and potentially dangerous barriers to patient care. In June, I had the privilege of meeting with acting Insurance Commissioner Elizabeth Sammis to discuss the unintended consequences of these “cost-containment” protocols. Her response has been most encouraging.

We are now at a critical point. In order to thoroughly review these practices, it is imperative for the MIA to receive formal complaints from patients and providers (on behalf of patients). Commissioner Sammis has asked MedChi to encourage its members to file complaints with the MIA and to share specific examples with the MIA directly or through MedChi. The MIA needs this information to develop and implement appropriate responses and to determine if statutory changes are needed.

We have heard from our own members and from other groups that many providers are simply too busy to take this extra step, yet without taking it, the problems will only worsen. Please join us in urging patients and providers (on behalf of patients) to file formal complaints with the MIA as situations arise.

To file a complaint, visit www.mdinsurance.state.md.us and follow the prompts:
Select the Consumer tab from the main menu (top of page);
Select File a Complaint option from the sidebar menu (left side of page);
Scroll down the page and under the How to File a Complaint heading, choose option #2, Download Forms to be Completed by Hand;
Select bullet #2, Life and HEALTH / Appeals and Complaints
Or visit:
http://www.mdinsurance.state.md.us/sa/jsp/consumer/FileComplaint.jsp

Thanks to the organizations which have already weighed in with your own letters to the MIA: Maryland Academy of Family Physicians (on file and available to MAFP members by request at info@mdafp.org), Maryland Academy of Pediatrics, Maryland Academy of Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioner Association of Maryland and Abilities Network / Epilepsy Foundation. As Maryland moves toward implementing the federal health bill, we have a chance to improve patient access to care by reducing or eliminating insurance barriers to care. I look forward to working with you all to achieve that goal.

Gene M. Ransom III
Chief Executive Officer
MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society
 

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Maryland Healthcare Professionals Immunization Initiative: Apply for a $1,000 Grant

 

 

You're invited to join the effort to increase immunization rates among healthcare professionals. For the past five years, the Maryland Partnership for Prevention and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have co-sponsored this initiative to promote influenza and other vaccinations recommended for health professionals. We need your help to make the 2010-2011 Maryland Healthcare Professionals Immunization Initiative a success. Please become a "Registered Partner" by completing the initiative's baseline survey at: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22AZQ84DU2V.

Registered Partners will:

  • Receive a hardcopy of the initiative toolkit, containing information to support healthcare worker vaccination campaigns;

  • Be eligible for a $1,000 grant to assist with funding healthcare professional immunization campaigns;

  • Receive monthly newsletters providing updates and information on vaccinating healthcare workers; and

  • Be invited to the Maryland Healthcare Professional Immunization Initiative Awards Ceremony and Wrap-Up Event.

We hope you will join this important effort to protect yourself and your patients and colleagues against vaccine-preventable diseases. Once you have completed the survey, a grant application will be emailed to you. Grant applications are due September 3.

 

To complete the survey, you will need the following information:

  • The actual number (or close approximation) of healthcare personnel and volunteers in your organization

  • The type of vaccine you routinely promote among your healthcare workers

  • Your policies on vaccinating employees against flu and other vaccine-preventable diseases

We appreciate your consideration of this invitation. For additional information, see the flyer above or call Tiffany Tate at 410-902-4677 or Robin Decker at 410-767-6679.
 

We look forward to having you as our partner!
 

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Position Announcement

 

Chase Brexton Health Services, Inc, a fast growing federally qualified health center in Maryland is currently seeking a full-time family physician who is either board certified or board eligible, for our office in Columbia, Maryland. Join our interdisciplinary team of top-notch, dedicated professionals providing comprehensive primary care and HIV care for a wide spectrum of patients regardless of income, insurance, race or sexual preference. Fascinating multi-cultural patient population. Full range of ambulatory Family Medicine except OB. Telephone on-call only (approximately one week in 12). Spanish language skills very desirable, though not required. We offer generous leave, CME time and expenses, paid administrative time; our malpractice coverage is unsurpassable. Please send your c.v./cover letter to Human Resources, Chase Brexton Health Services, Inc., 1001 Cathedral St., Baltimore, MD 21201, fax 443-573-5001, or email to hr@chasebrexton.org. 
 

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Environmental Scan and News You Can Use

  • An International Conference on Integrative Medicine will be held in October 2010 in Jerusalem . The Conference will deal with ways to unite the scientific principles of modern medicine with the holistic principles of alternative medicine, hosting a dialogue between professionals and participants from around the world. In order to give all those interested the possibility to participate we hereby announce that the registration has started. Details and registration forms are available in the Conference site : www.holylandcon.com 

  • Telemedicine can be remote lifesaver
    United Press International, August 9, 2010
    “Telemedicine is becoming a more important part of health care for oil rig workers and those far away from traditional health care facilities, experts say. Medical test results can be relayed by Internet or satellite, while Web cams allow for visual access and photographs can be sent by smartphone.”

  • Mobile clinics seen as way to cut U.S. health bill
    Reuters, August 11, 2010
    There are some 2,000 mobile health clinics in the U.S., and experts say they help control costs by keeping people with chronic diseases out of hospital emergency departments. Harvard University's Family Van in Boston estimates every dollar it spends creates $36 in economic benefits, such as preventing nonemergency ED visits.

  •  Companies Help Employees Provide End-Of-Life Care
    NPR, August 10, 2010
    “Juggling a caregiving role with a full-time job is daunting. But it can be even more difficult working during the end stages of a loved one's life. Some companies are exploring end-of-life initiatives to help their employees manage the ultimate transition.”

  • Payers announce meaningful-use incentives
    FierceHealthPayer, August 9, 2010
    “Four major insurers announced they will align their pay-for-performance programs with federal meaningful-use criteria for electronic medical records. However, it is not clear in all cases if those changes will mean increased P4P payments. Either way, the payers' moves, depending on the success and spread of their programs, could accelerate implementation of meaningful use.”

  • Nurses who are doctors
    Philadelphia Inquirer, August 8, 2010
    “More are earning the doctor of nursing practice degree. Sue Shirato is a nurse. And a doctor. But probably not the kind of doctor you think, which makes her introduction to patients at the Jefferson Heart Institute more complicated."I'm Dr. Shirato, but feel free to call me Sue," she tells patients. "I am Dr. Duffy's advanced-practice nurse."

  • CCHIT announces three new certification programs for EHRs
    Healthcare IT News, July 27, 2010
    “The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) announced Tuesday the launch of new CCHIT Certified programs in three specialty areas for electronic health records.”

  • iPhone apps that could save your life
    Network World, August 2, 2010
    “Developers are using the Community Health Data Initiative to create iPhone apps such as iTriage, which provides patients with information about symptoms and gives advice on seeking medical care. The app Asthmapolis uses a GPS-enabled device that attaches to an inhaler and records a time and location when asthma patients use their inhalers, while MedWatcher alerts patients about recalls or news related to their medications.”

  • 7 hours of sleep each day is just right, study says
    Yahoo! News.com, August 1, 2010
    “Researchers said seven is the magic number for hours of sleep and people who got more or less each day increase their risk of cardiovascular disease. Getting less than five hours of sleep daily, including naps, doubled the risk of angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke, while sleeping nine hours or longer increased the risk of cardiovascular disease 1.5 times.”

  

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Phone: (410) 747-1980 - Fax: (410) 744-6059
E-Mail: info@mdafp.org