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June 9, 2010 MAFP E-BULLETIN, June, 2010, VOL.4, NO.6
SEE YOU SOON IN ANNAPOLIS! All details at www.mdafp.org or call 410-747-1980 In this issue: Message from Lt. Governor Brown: Health Care Reform in Maryland
Medicare SGR Fix: Suggested Letter to Local Media Outlets
Thinking about selling your practice to a hospital?
KySS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Fellowship Online CME Program
Message from Lt. Governor Brown: Health Care Reform in Maryland
Several months ago, Governor Martin O’Malley created the
Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council to advise the
administration on implementing federal health reform as
efficiently and effectively as possible. The Council will make
policy recommendations and offer implementation strategies to
keep Maryland among the leading states in expanding high
quality, affordable health care while reducing waste and
controlling costs. Federal health care reform challenges us to
blend competent, effective government with the skills,
experience and needs of the community. Neither government nor
the private sector can do it alone.
As we move forward, your thoughts and ideas will help the
Council to focus on high-level priorities for Maryland. The
website is now open to receive your input on these two topics,
and we invite you to submit comments by June 18, 2010 at
www.healthreform.maryland.gov/publiccomment.html
Anthony G. Brown MAFP has been active in working with the Lt. Governor’s office and with the Council. We have responded giving the Academy and Family Medicine perspectives on the Patient Centered Medical Home initiatives (nationally and in MD where we are working with the Maryland Health Care Commission on its PCMH pilot... see invitation last page below), touched on primary care/family practice training, payment reform and tort reform. We hope that MAFP members will participate by sharing their thoughts and ideas via the websites noted above. We would appreciate receiving copies of member remarks, as well, to info@mdafp.org. Medicare SGR Fix: Suggested Letter to Local Media Outlets
MAFP suggests the text below for members to send to their
local media outlets (mainly newspapers but also TV and radio
stations for possible interviews). We can also reiterate a
recent memo from AAFP to its members that AAFP (in alignment
with positions/reactions of ACP, AOA and AMA) calls for the
following 3 actions by US Congress: 1) Permanent Fix to SGR
(stop incremental “band aids”), 2) If temporary fixes must
continue, they must be for a minimum duration of 31 months
(instead of current 19 months), 3) a positive differential for
primary care must be included in any future decision by Congress
(not currently included). AAFP will not support anything less.
Dear Editor
When Medicare was created nearly 45 years ago, our nation
promised elderly and disabled patients they would no longer go
without needed health care. For 45 years our parents and
grandparents have invested in the system. They continue to pay
through monthly premiums. But we are breaking our promise to 25
percent of elderly and disabled patients who are seeking a
doctor because they cannot find one who is accepting Medicare
patients.
Why? Because Congress routinely fails to permanently change the
law that requires Medicare to slash its payment for physician
care. Instead, Congress approves temporary postponements that
have frozen Medicare payment at 2001 levels. On June 1, 2010 a
21-percent pay cut took effect. Because TRICARE — the health
plan for members of the military and their families — cannot
exceed Medicare payments, this cut also threatens health care
for those in the armed services and their loved ones.
Family physicians were already straining to make ends meet with
Medicare payment rates. Today’s family physicians are paying
their nurses, physician assistants and other staff with 2010
wages. They are paying for electricity, heating and water at
2010 rates. They are buying medical supplies and equipment at
2010 prices. But with a 21-percent pay cut — after nine years of
nearly frozen Medicare payments and nine years of inflation —
family physicians are paying 2010 prices with what amounts to
1994 income. This will cripple their ability to continue caring
for their Medicare and TRICARE patients. Congress has reneged on its promise of ensuring access to health care for their elderly and disabled constituents. Legislators must act immediately to retroactively repeal this pay cut and replace the deeply flawed SGR formula with a permanent replacement that reflects actual practice costs that physicians experience. Short-term fixes are not the right solution for Medicare patients, physicians or the health care system. However, until Congress passes a permanent fix, the American Academy of Family Physicians is calling on Congress to pass a measure that cancels the pay cut until at least Dec. 31, 2012, and that includes a differentially better payment for primary medical care. This action will temporarily stabilize the Medicare system, allowing physician practices to plan for the next 31 months and easing the uncertainty for Medicare and TRICARE patients. It also will signal that federal policy recognizes the important role of primary physicians in ensuring high quality health care.
The political gamesmanship must end. A comprehensive and stable Medicare payment system must be put in place. The time to begin that process is now.
Your Name and Identifying Information
Thinking about selling your practice to a hospital?
Physicians
are being targeted more and more every day by hospitals to sell
their business and physicians should think about the business,
professional and personal implications before doing so.
TransforMED (a MAFP partner: see
www.mdafp.org) is hosting a webinar called, "To Sell or Not
to Sell Your Practice." Attend this webinar on June 24th at 2:00
p.m. EDT to learn more about the opportunities and challenges
associated with selling your practice to a hospital and what
physicians should think about before moving down that path.
KySS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Fellowship Online CME Program
The KySS (Keep your children Safe and Secure) Fellowship Program
is an opportunity for members of the MAFP to gain further
knowledge of child and adolescent mental health and earn CME
credits. The program is designed specifically for providers
working with culturally diverse high-risk children and
adolescents who have common mental health problems across rural,
urban, and community settings currently underserved by
insufficient numbers of psychiatric/mental health providers. The
KySS Fellowship program is designed for healthcare providers
practicing in pediatric, adolescent/college or family practice
and school settings. What is the format? The program consists of 20 online modules that emphasize mental health screening, assessment and interviewing, accurate identification and early evidence-based interventions of common mental health problems in children and adolescents across socio-cultural groups.
How much does it
cost? The fellowship program costs $2150 or $2250 if you
would like to break it up into 10 installment payments of $225.
How long does it take? The KySS online CE program is self paced. However, as a guideline, students are estimated to complete one module every other week.
For more information or to apply, contact Danica Weston at
kyss@asu.edu or visit
http://nursingandhealth.asu.edu/kyss.
Calling
all Physicians and Health Professionals: NYU Global Medical
Brigades is planning a one-week medical relief trip to Honduras
this year, and WE NEED YOUR HELP! This is a wonderful
opportunity to provide much-needed medical care to thousands of
Hondurans living in some of the most impoverished villages in
the world. NYU Global Medical Brigades is a chapter of the
largest student-driven relief organization in the world. The
mission consists of medical student volunteers and other medical
professionals who are interested, including physicians,
pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and ophthalmologists. The group
functions as a mobile medical unit, setting up clinics to
diagnose and treat patients at no cost. Medical professionals
return from the trip having served several rural communities,
having helped some of the poorest people in the world, and
having positively influenced the next generation of working
professionals and aspiring physicians. Our next trip will be
taking place from August 7th-14th, 2010. If you are interested
in joining us on this or future trips, donating medications or
supplies, or talking with health professionals who have traveled
with us in the past, please contact our president, David Lee, at
nyu-med@globalbrigades.org or (908) 930-0831. For more
information about our organization or to donate, you can also
visit
www.globalbrigades.org and
http://nyumedicalbrigades.r8.org/. We hope you can help us
make a significant contribution to people who need it!
Erin Gaughan
MAFP or MAFP Foundation |
