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July 6, 2009 |
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IN THIS ISSUE
Keep Pressure On Lawmakers Regarding Medicaid
Budget, Tort Reform
AMA Helps Keep Drugs Out Of Medicare Physician
Payment Formula
Blues, Hospitals Expand Partnership In 'Keystone'
Quality Program
Obama Signs Tobacco Bill; Michigan Smoking Ban
Still Pending
2009 Medical Practice Compensation And Benefit
Survey-Reminder
GDAHC To Hold Forum On Quality And Cost Issues
Dr. Ayers Appointed To Student National Medical
Association
IOM Recommends Top 100
Research Priorities |
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Keep Pressure On Lawmakers Regarding
Medicaid Budget, Tort Reform
As deliberation
continues in the legislature, MSMS urges you to use its Action
Center (www.msms.org/action) to send messages to your lawmakers,
urging them to: (1) Vote to preserve Medicaid funding and protect
access. The Senate just passed (among other things) an eight-percent
cut to physicians and other health care providers, and now the
legislation returns to the House for further debate; and (2) Vote
“NO” on HB 4571, which would broadly modify – and put at risk –
Michigan’s nation-leading tort reforms. The bill remains in the
House Judiciary Committee, and could see action soon. For more
information, contact Colin Ford at 517-336-5737 or
cford@msms.org.
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AMA Helps Keep Drugs
Out Of Medicare Physician Payment Formula
The following
July 1 statement is from AMA President J. James Rohack, MD, on
behalf of the AMA.
The removal of
physician-administered drugs from the broken Medicare physician
payment formula is a major victory for America’s seniors and their
physicians. The AMA has been calling for this action since 2002 so
that Congress can afford to repeal the flawed Medicare physician
payment formula. We are very pleased that the Obama administration
agrees with the AMA that drugs do not belong in the physician
payment formula.
“President Obama,
HHS Secretary Sebelius and White House Health Reform Director
DeParle clearly understand that fixing the Medicare payment formula
once and for all is fundamental to comprehensive health reform.
“Our nation has a
historic opportunity for health reform this year, and strengthening
Medicare should be a cornerstone of this effort. Without
congressional action, Medicare will impose a steep cut to physician
payment rates in 2010. Physicians will not be able to continue to
treat all seniors, let alone make quality improvements to their
practices, if the cuts occur. Instead of yet another band-aid fix,
today’s action paves the way for Congress to ensure stable payment
rates that reflect increasing medical practice costs and preserve
seniors’ access to care.
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Blues, Hospitals
Expand Partnership In 'Keystone' Quality Program
Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) has announced a second $6 million,
five-year investment in activities by the Michigan Health & Hospital
Association (MHA) Keystone Center for Patient Safety & Quality.
The money will
help enable the MHA Keystone Center to sustain ongoing efforts and
launch new projects aimed at improving patient safety and quality of
care delivered at the bedside. Since the founding of the center by
Michigan hospitals in 2003, nearly every Michigan hospital has
participated in its collaboratives that share evidence-based best
practices to prevent infections, reduce complications and hospital
inpatient days, improve patient safety, and reduce health care
costs.
“The Michigan
hospitals that participate in the MHA Keystone Center programs have
achieved significant, measurable patient safety improvements —
errors have been reduced and lives have been saved,” said Spencer
Johnson, president of the MHA. “The support from Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Michigan is integral for the continuation and expansion of
Michigan hospitals’ innovative patient safety efforts.”
BCBSM’s funding
will support ongoing and new MHA Keystone Center projects including:
• Reducing
the number of hospital-associated infections
•
Improving care for mothers giving birth and their newborn babies
•
Improving emergency room flow and care
The funding will
help defray costs to hospitals for data collection and sharing, and
allow for the implementation of new processes and procedures to
improve quality and safety.
The MHA Keystone
Center, BCBSM and Michigan hospitals have had success in earlier
Keystone projects that have led to greater quality and safety at
hospitals, reported the Blues. The longest running MHA Keystone
Center project, MHA Keystone: ICU, improves safety and reduces
medical errors in hospital intensive care units. In just four years,
the project resulted in nearly 1,800 lives saved, 129,000 excess
hospital days avoided and $247 million saved.
As a more recent
example, an MHA Keystone Center project to reduce urinary tract
infections acquired from hospital catheters is under way to achieve
appropriate reductions in catheter use. Early calculations estimate
the project has the potential to reduce the number of patients
contracting catheter-associated urinary tract infections by
thousands and generate a potential cost savings of more than $10
million over the course of one year.
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Obama Signs Tobacco
Bill; Michigan Smoking Ban Still Pending
In a White House
Rose Garden ceremony held on June 22, President Obama signed the
“Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” into law. The
new law provides authority for the Food and Drug Administration to
regulate the manufacture, sale, distribution and marketing of
tobacco products with the primary goal of reducing youth and teen
smoking. The AMA was represented at the ceremony by President J.
James Rohack, MD.
Michigan remains
one of fewer than 20 states that do not have restrictive workplace
smoking bans on the books. The Michigan legislature continues to
consider such legislation, but ended the last legislative session
stalemated over exemptions to a comprehensive smoking ban for
casinos, cigar bars and other venues.
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2009 Medical Practice Compensation
And Benefit Survey-Reminder
We encourage
your participation.
Please
complete your survey by July 24, 2009 @ 5:00PM.
Rehmann Healthcare Management Advisors, The Michigan Medical Group
Management Association (MMGMA) and Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS)
have again collaborated to conduct this annual survey on behalf of
our members, medical practice clients, and contacts. We anticipate
that the survey results will prove helpful in managing your
practice. It is only through your participation that the survey will
continue to be successful.
Survey responses will be received and compiled by Rehmann Healthcare
Management Advisors. All response data will be treated in
confidence and results will be reported in summary format. No
individual practice's response data will be identifiable through the
survey results. Please provide your name and contact information on
the survey questionnaire so that you may be contacted if any
questions arise regarding your survey responses.
If survey mailings are directed to multiple persons within your
practice, it is requested that the practice organization submit only
one (1) survey response.
If you have questions as you complete the questionnaire, contact
Jennifer Warner at Rehmann Healthcare Management Advisors (phone –
989.797.8348 / email -
jennifer.warner@rehmann.com
) </
Click on the link below to get started. Please take the time to read
through the Using the Online Survey tool instructions
available when you click on the link to begin.
http://survey.rehmann.com/hc2009/
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL SURVEY RESPONSES MUST BE RECEIVED BY 5:00 PM ON
7/24/09.
If you are unable to complete your survey due to any type of
technical difficulty, please notify
carrie.andrews@rehmann.com or
jennifer.warner@rehmann.com. We will make every effort to
assist you in completing this survey.
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GDAHC To Hold Forum
On Quality And Cost Issues
Aligning Forces
for Quality initiative.
Wednesday, July
22, 2009
1:30 — 5 p.m.
The Dearborn Inn
20301 Oakwood
Boulevard
Dearborn, MI
48124
(no attendance
fee)
Activities
featured:
• Learn about and
celebrate recent SLSD program accomplishments
• Get updated on
SLSD future direction
• Learn about and
have input to the role that GDAHC plays in
influencing the
direction of national health care reform
• Give feedback
on messages to be shared with Congressional
delegation
meetings that will be held in October
• Meet and
network with current and former SLSD members and
other community
stakeholders
Who should
attend:
• Current and
past SLSD Team Members
• GDAHC members
• Health care
coalition leaders
• “Friends of”
SLSD
• Anyone
passionate about health care transformation!
For more
information, visit
www.gdahc.org
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Dr. Ayers Appointed
To Student National Medical Association
Eric Ayers, MD,
an assistant professor of Internal Medicine/Pediatrics and associate
program director of Internal Medicine/Pediatrics with the Wayne
State University School of Medicine, has been appointed to serve as
a professional board member for the Student National Medical
Association.
Dr. Ayers was
initially nominated by Nakia Williams, a second-year pediatric
student, who was impressed with his passion for mentorship and his
students.
“For me, this is
indeed an honor to serve in this capacity,” Dr. Ayers said. “For the
School of Medicine and its departments, it gives us access,
visibility and a vehicle to help in the recruitment of minorities in
medicine.”
After he was
nominated, Dr. Ayers met with the board for an interview and was
asked to prepare and deliver a presentation on leadership at the
Student National Medical Association’s National Leadership
Institute.
Established in
1964, the Student National Medical Association consists of more than
8,000 members throughout the United States. The SNMA is the oldest
and largest independent, student-run organization committed to
meeting the needs of minorities and preparing them for careers in
medicine.
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IOM Recommends Top
100 Research Priorities
A new report from
the Institute of Medicine recommends 100 health topics that should
get priority attention and funding from a new national research
effort to identify which health care services work best. It also
spells out actions and resources needed to ensure that this
comparative effectiveness research initiative will be a sustained
effort with a continuous process for updating priorities as needed
and that the results are put into clinical practice.
A committee
convened by the IOM developed the list of priority topics at the
request of Congress as part of a $1.1 billion effort to improve the
quality and efficiency of health care through comparative
effectiveness research outlined in the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009. The committee's report provides
independent guidance -- informed by extensive public input -- to
Congress and the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human
Services on how to spend $400 million on research to compare health
services and approaches to care. For more information, follow the
link below.
http://www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/20090630.html
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