OCMS Digital Newsletter - August 2022

TAKE ACTION:

Tell Congress to Get Our Health Care System Back on Track


MSMS - AUGUST 2022


Members of Congress will soon be heading home for their August district work period where they will be meeting with—and listening to—their constituents. There isn’t a better opportunity for you to turn up the heat by reminding them that there is still unfinished work on important health care issues, including looming cuts to physician Medicare payments and fixing the cumbersome prior authorization process.

Tell Congress to get our health care system back on track by clicking the issue links below!


Physician Medicare payment cuts  

Late last year, physician advocates from across the country united to successfully persuade Congress to delay a “perfect storm” of Medicare payment cuts that, if enacted, would have severely impeded patient access to care.

Unfortunately, if Congress does not act by the end of the year, these delayed cuts, and some new ones, will take effect in 2023 and cause serious disruption to physician practices. 


It’s clear that Congress must work with the physician community to develop long-term solutions to the systemic problems with the Medicare physician payment system and preserve patient access by passing legislation. In the meantime, policymakers need to address the immediate problem.

Before the end of the year, we are asking Congress to:

  • Extend the Congressionally enacted 3 percent temporary increase in the Medicare physician fee schedule
  • Provide relief for an additional 1.5 percent budget neutrality cut that is planned for 2023
  • End the statutory annual freeze and provide an inflation-based update for the coming year
  • Waive the 4 percent PAYGO sequester necessitated by passage of legislation unrelated to Medicare


Prior Authorization

Physicians complete an average of 41 prior authorizations per week. This unnecessary burden amounts to roughly 13 hours weekly that physicians and their staff must spend on administrative work instead of seeing and treating patients. If an insurance plan covers a treatment that would benefit a patient, physicians should not have to waste time ensuring access to it.


Further complicating matters, the criteria used for prior authorizations are unclear. Physicians rarely know at the point-of-care if the prescribed treatment requires prior authorization, only to find out later when a patient’s access is delayed or denied. This ineffective system can cause unnecessary tension in the physician-patient relationship and negatively impact patient health.


Luckily Congress has already taken steps to address this by introducing the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act (H.R. 8487) which would require Medicare Advantage plans to adopt transparent PA programs that adhere to evidence-based medical guidelines and hold plans accountable for making timely PA determinations and providing rationales for denials.


Momentum is building on H.R. 8487 and, with enough grassroots pressure in August, we can get it across the finish line when Congress returns in the fall.


With only a handful of legislative days left this year, please join us in the fight to get our health care system back on track. Take action on these critical issues and look for opportunities to get in front of your members of Congress and their staff over the August recess. Visit physiciansgrassrootsnetwork.org for updated resources including policy points and information on public events that lawmakers are planning. Also, please keep us informed on your activities throughout the month by filling out this brief form.

 

Remember, elections are approaching, and time is running out for this Congress to take the critical steps required to help physicians and the patients they care for. Please do your part by answering this urgent call to action!

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New Implicit Bias

Training Requirement


MSMS - JUNE 2, 2022


The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) will require implicit bias training for physicians (and other health care professionals), effective June 1, 2022. The requirements apply to both new applicants as well as those renewing their existing licenses or registrations.  


An applicant for license renewal shall have completed a minimum of 1 hour of implicit bias training for each year of the applicant’s license or registration cycle. An applicant for new licensure, both limited and medical, shall have completed a minimum of 2 hours of implicit bias training within the 5 years immediately preceding issuance of the license or registration.


Physicians will need to report implicit bias credit when they renew their license. Those who renewed in January 2022, needed no training. Physicians who renew in 2023, will need to report 1 hour. Physicians who renew in 2024, will need to report 2 hours. Physicians who renew in 2025, will need to report the full 3 hours. Then after, every 3-year renewal cycle will need to report 3 hours. Training that was taken prior to June 1, 2021, and within the license cycle that is up for renewal, qualifies toward the requirement for renewals. The rule also allows new applicants for licensure or registration to complete the training within the 5 years immediately preceding issuance of the license or registration.


Please note, the implicit bias training for licensure has additional requirements and differs from the other mandated CME areas. Training must include strategies to reduce disparities in access to and delivery of health care services and the administration of pre- and post-test implicit bias assessments. Acceptable modalities of training are a teleconference or webinar that permits live synchronous interaction, a live presentation or an interactive online instruction. Solely recorded or archived content is not allowable, a live component is required.


Training content must include, but is not limited to, 1 or more of the following topics: 

  • Information on implicit bias, equitable access to health care, serving a diverse population, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and cultural sensitivity. 
  • Strategies to remedy the negative impact of implicit bias by recognizing and understanding how it impacts perception, judgment, and actions that may result in inequitable decision making, failure to effectively communicate, and result in barriers and disparities in the access to and delivery of health care services. 
  • The historical basis and present consequences of implicit biases based on an individual’s characteristics. 
  • Discussion of current research on implicit bias in the access to and delivery of health care services.  


BUYERS BEWARE!! Many professional medical education companies are racing to provide implicit bias content to meet Michigan licensure requirements. While they claim they meet Michigan LARA requirements, most do not. Please make sure your class has a live component (meaning in-person) and a pre AND post implicit bias assessment is included. 


MSMS has researched and contacted a dozen of these companies informing them of their program’s shortcomings. MSMS has also contacted LARA to request an official mechanism for these organizations to be reported and that LARA also provide outreach notifying them of non-compliance. And that physicians who in good faith completed implicit bias content is not penalized for inaccurate marketing. 

In the meantime, MSMS is happy to review any course you may consider taking for compliance.  


For more information on the implicit bias requirement or any other issues regarding physician licensing, please contact Rebecca Blake, MSMS's Senior Director, Education, Foundation, and Subsidiaries, at (517) 336-5729.


The MSMS Foundation worked with state-wide experts in diversity and equity on a brand-new two-part monthly series, titled, “Reducing Unconscious Bias - an Imperative (RUBI): Foundation and Impacts on Patient Care,” which includes a one-hour on-demand video followed by a half-hour live webinar.  To meet the implicit bias requirement, physicians will need to complete Part 1 and Part 2 to receive 1.5 AMA PRA Category Credit(s)™. 


Download our license renewal guide>> 


Statement of Accreditation:

The Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.


AMA Credit Designation Statement:

The MSMS designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.


Nurses: The ACCME is approved by the Board of Nursing as an acceptable provider of continuing education for license renewal or relicensure.

MSMS Foundation Fall Courses Announced


The MSMS Foundation Fall courses are now open for registration. Educational offerings include our free monthly Grand Rounds and Practice Management series, our annual Bioethics Conference, and several opportunities to obtain implicit bias training at the Monday Night Medicine sessions and the Board of Medicine Conferences. More information can be found at the link below.

 

https://www.msms.org/About-MSMS/News-Media/msms-foundation-fall-courses-announced

You are invited to

Oakland County Medical Society & Wayne County Medical Society of

Southeast Michigan 

Physician & Legislator Virtual Forum

Monday, September 19, 2022

7:30 am

Register Here for the Zoom Link 
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Membership Renewal Notices



MSMS will begin sending 2023 membership renewal invoices to all current members starting in September. Please look for these in your mail, if you haven't received yours by November, please reach out to me at rshubitowski@ocms-mi.org.

Oakland County Medical Society

30700 Telegraph Road, Suite 3445

Bingham Farms, MI 48025

248-792-7062

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