UMass FMCH Tuesday Talk - July 1, 2025/CLINICAL | | Welcome to the FMCH Tuesday Talk. Please continue to send us your announcements, celebrations, and accomplishments to FMCHtuesdaytalk@umassmed.edu. | | |
Table of Contents
Message From the Chair
Focus of the Week - Clinical
Announcements
Department Member Recognition
Frankly Speaking Podcast
Resources
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Message From the Chair
M. Diane McKee, MD, MS, Professor and Chair,
UMass Memorial Ledwith Chair in Family and Community Medicine
As we embark on the summer, I want to welcome our new interns, fellows, staff, and faculty (more information to come next week). I want to thank everyone for their commitment to our department, our faculty and staff, our learners, and our patients during these challenging times. Everyone has been creative, flexible, and respectful as we have made difficult decision due to budget reductions, and I appreciate this.
I hope you all find some time this summer for family and friends, rest, and rejuvenation. I am fortunate to work with such a fantastic group of people. Be safe and have some fun!
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Focus of the Week - Clinical
Josephine Fowler, MD, MBA, Vice Chair of Clinical Services
July-Common Illnesses - Food Safety for July 4th
July is a common month for food borne illnesses. Food borne illnesses are more common during the summer months.
Common infections in the summer months are listed below.
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Salmonella
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Source: Most common sources include undercooked meat or poultry, contaminated produce, undercooked eggs.
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Risk: Commonly seen during outdoors events during the summer months.
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Symptoms: Diarrhea, fever, stomach cramps (6–72 hours after exposure).
E. coli (especially Shiga toxin-producing strains)
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Source: Commonly found in undercooked beef and in raw vegetables.
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Risk: E. Coli is commonly associated with undercooked meat.
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Symptoms: Severe stomach cramps, bloody diarrhea, vomiting.
Campylobacter
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Source: Undercooked chicken, unpasteurized milk.
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Risk: Backyard grilling and poorly handled raw chicken.
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Symptoms: Diarrhea (sometimes bloody), fever, cramps.
Staphylococcus aureus
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Source: Foods left at room temp too long — potato salad, custards, creamy desserts.
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Risk: Bacteria produce toxins that survive cooking.
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Symptoms: Rapid onset nausea, vomiting, cramps (1–6 hours).
Norovirus
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Source: Contaminated food or surfaces, especially with unwashed hands.
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Risk: Spreads easily at picnics or potlucks.
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Symptoms: Vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain.
Updates in MA Health Care Law Decisions
- Prescription Drug Cost Caps & PBM Oversight
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Co-pay cap law (S.3012 / S.2520): As of January 8, 2025, prescription drug co-pays are capped at $25 per 30-day supply for one brand-name drug for chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes, asthma, heart disease), and generic alternatives are free.
Governor Healey Signs Laws Lowering Health Care Costs and Strengthening Oversight | Mass.gov
- Maternal & Behavioral Health Expansion
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Maternal health bill (H.4773): Signed August 2024, this expands MassHealth coverage for midwives and doulas, rolls out postpartum depression screening, regulates birth centers, and improves maternal care equity
- Cost Control & Equity Benchmarks
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HPC (Health Policy Committee) cost-growth benchmark: For 2025, the HPC set a statewide target growth of 3.6% on total healthcare expenditures—down from 5.8% in 2021–22—aimed at curbing overall healthcare cost escalation.
Congratulations to all the Resident and BH Fellowship Graduates and Welcome to New Interns.
Remembering Why We Need Health Equity in Healthcare
1. Because Health is a Human Right
Everyone deserves a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible — regardless of race, income, education, gender identity, or where they live. Health equity means actively removing barriers that prevent people from achieving their best health.
2. To Address Unfair Differences in Health Outcomes
Without health equity, certain groups consistently experience worse health outcomes — including higher rates of chronic diseases, maternal mortality, and shorter life expectancy.
Achieving health equity means working to eliminate discrimination and bias in care delivery, improving access to affordable care, and addressing the social and environmental conditions that impact health.
Health equity means everyone has a fair and just chance to reach their best health. We need it to eliminate unfair and preventable differences in health outcomes caused by poverty, discrimination, and lack of access to care.
Equitable healthcare builds trust, improves quality, and leads to better results for everyone — making it both a moral and economic necessity for healthier, stronger communities.
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Announcements
Inspire the next generation of Family Physicians! MassAHEC is planning for AY25-26! Longitudinal Preceptors Needed!
With the next academic year fast approaching, Longitudinal Preceptors are needed for incoming MassAHEC Rural and Urban Health Scholars. Students work with LPs for 6 sessions in year one and 6 in year two. More than 30% of these scholars have gone into Family Medicine due to the lessons learned during these early years of med school. This feedback summarizes it best: “Working with my Longitudinal Preceptor has been one of the most enriching aspects of the program. …taught me to tailor my interviews to the patient population to better address their needs. …taught me the importance of interprofessional teamwork and integrating behavioral health into primary care. Observing how she collaborates with other healthcare professionals has emphasized the significance of a team-based approach to enhance patient outcomes.” If interested, please contact Linda.Cragin@umassmed.edu.
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Wound Care Skills Session:
A fun, interactive session at 4:30pm on August 20th or 21st at the Albert Sherman Center (University campus) with future AHEC Scholars to encourage them to join MassAHEC Scholars!
Contact Linda.Cragin@umassmed.edu if you can volunteer and for which night.
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ALERT: Medicare Fraud Scheme Involving Phishing Fax Requests
National Government Services (NGS) wants to share with providers an urgent issue that has been identified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS has been flooded with incoming complaints regarding illegitimate faxes being sent to providers falsely claiming to be from CMS staff. These faxes have falsely claimed to be part of a Medicare audit and demanded that the provider submit medical documentation and other information to CMS or face the risk of revocation, fines, or other significant consequences.
IMPORTANT: CMS does not initiate audits by requesting medical records via fax. We urge all providers to protect your information. If you receive a suspicious request, don’t respond to it. If you believe you have received a fraudulent or questionable request, we urge you to reach out to NGS to confirm if it’s real.
A message from Deb Dreyfus:
We are excited to present Paramedic Acute Response Approach for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (PARA-AIDD), to start in September! With support from Masshealth and ForHealth, we will be offering in-home Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) support to adults covered by MassHealth receiving residential support services funded by the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) residing in 12 towns around Worcester. This program is delivered through a collaboration between Family Medicine and Community Health, Emergency Medicine, and the Eunice Kennedy Shirver Center at UMass Chan, and UMass Memorial Health. With PARA-AIDD, specially trained community paramedics will be dispatched 24/7 to perform home evaluation and treatment in collaboration with a supervising Emergency physician and the patient's ambulatory team. The paramedics will be able to provide assessment, labs, imaging, and some treatment options. Our goal is to improve health and access to medical care, especially for those who suffer the most with extended ED wait times, with MIH as an extension of primary care. We also want to create a seamless transition once the MIH visit is complete with comprehensive communication with the outpatient providers and documentation via Epic. We will be studying the program to access its impact on decreasing time to resolution of the acute issue, decreasing visits to EDs, quality of care, cost savings and satisfaction. If any questions, please reach out to either deborah.dreyfus@umassmemorial.org, emily.lauer@umassmed.edu, or
laurel.oconnor@umassmed.edu.
Interfolio Tips:
Before preparing your annual review on Interfolio, please take about 20 minutes to review the job aids and videos before trying to access Interfolio. They are very helpful.
Supervisor: https://www.umassmed.edu/ofa/academic/faculty-reviews/apr/interfolio-resources-for-chairs--supervisors/
Faculty: https://www.umassmed.edu/ofa/academic/faculty-reviews/apr/interfolio-resources-for-faculty/
When you finish your part, you must both "submit" (bottom of the page) and "send case" (top of the page) so that it can proceed to the next step. If you need to make any edits or have technical questions about Interfolio, please contact Heather Garron at heather.garron@umassmemorial.org or by phone 774-442-7059/Cell 508-579-1673. There are also weekly faculty drop in hours on Thursdays at noon at this link. Plan to give yourself extra time because Interfolio can be clunky. It takes some time for each page to load. While there is a fair amount of startup work for each faculty, we have been advised that it will streamline your efforts and become a time saver in years to come. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this moment of transition.
Advocacy Suggestion from Sara Shields:
I’m reaching out to share an important advocacy opportunity: the MMS is encouraging members to contact their state lawmakers in support of S.2522, An Act strengthening health care protections in the Commonwealth, aimed at strengthening protections for both patients and providers of reproductive and gender-affirming care. The Senate announced they are bringing this legislation to the floor for a vote this week – now is the time to act! Please feel free to pass this along to your colleagues as well!
Thanks to the efforts of Josephine Fowler, Jeanne Cawse-Lucas and Maryanne Adams, we are able each year to deliver high quality, AAFP approved CME via our Grand Rounds structure. To better address your needs, WE NEED YOUR HELP. Please answer this 4 question (3 minutes, max) survey to help us learn what you want. https://umassmed.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0694x39bXoIE42W
Summer Scholarship Writing Circles
Mondays in July, 12:00-1:00pm
Have you been putting off that scholarly project? Have you had difficulty making time to write? Summer Scholarship Writing Circles provide the space and time for you to make progress on that paper, presentation or curriculum. The hybrid (in-person and virtual) sessions will consist mostly of quiet writing time, with an opportunity to get support from your faculty peers. In-person (Lamar Soutter Library Conference Room at UMass Chan Medical School) & virtual options for participation. REGISTER
The 2025-2026 BRC Fellowship Call for Applications Is Open
The Building Research Capacity (BRC) Fellowship has 3 aims:
- Coaching: Provide coaching support to build research and scholarship capacity within a program or institution
- Support: Develop a peer support network among other individuals or teams trying to build research capacity
- Strategic Planning: Create a strategic plan for research and scholarship within their home program/institution
Applications are due July 30, 2025. Learn more and apply here!
Private Funding Opportunities
The Corporate and Foundation Relations (CFR) team distributes via email a bi-weekly digest summarizing upcoming private funding opportunities to the UMass Chan Medical School community. Sign up today by emailing DevelopmentFundingDigest@umassmed.edu. The CFR team is here to help members of the UMass Chan community generate curated lists of foundation and institutional philanthropy opportunities. Contact us to learn about tools and foundations that support faculty, postdocs, predocs, graduate students and medical school students. Please contact the CFR team before approaching any foundation or private philanthropic funder.
Another funding resource is: https://www.rwjf.org/en/grants/active-funding-opportunities/2025/exploring-equitable-futures.html?rid=003VN00000FHgqEYAT&et_cid=2199758
Due October 15th, 2025.
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Department Member Recognition
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On June 23–24, Manju Mahajan, MD, Advocacy Director with WFMR, attended the AAFP's Family Medicine Advocacy Summit in Washington, D.C., alongside nearly 350 attendees, including family physicians, residents, and medical students. The delegation from Massachusetts included:
Dr. Mahajan, Jason Denoncourt, an accelerated MD student at UMass Chan Medical School, sponsored by MassAFP; Tong Yan, a PGY2 resident at the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency Program, sponsored by AFMRD. The group went to Capitol Hill and met with staff from Representative Jake Auchincloss’s office (D-MA04), then they met Representative Lori Trahan (D-MA03) and her team who later posted about the importance of Family Medicine on their social media page. The group also met with staff from the offices of Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Ed Markey. Advocacy was focused on key issues and components of the Reconciliation Bill including:
- Preserving the Medicaid program
- Reforming Medicare physician payment
- Protecting the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
- Maintaining vaccine integrity
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Daniel H. Lasser Family Medicine Education Innovation Fund
You can contribute by credit card to this link or QR code:
https://alumni.umassmed.edu/lasserinnovationfund. Or you can send a check payable to UMass Chan Medical School with "Lasser Fund" in the memo to: UMass Chan Medical School Office of Advancement, 333 South St. Shrewsbury, MA 01545.
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Frankly Speaking Podcast
Please join us for a weekly Podcast series for an overview: Nocturnal leg cramps (NLCs) are common in older adults, but current treatments often fall short or carry risks. Listen in as we explore new evidence on the safety and efficacy of vitamin K12 as a potential treatment for NLCs. Come away with practical insights to help you improve the sleep and qulaity of life of your patients. Guest: Robert A. Baldor, MD, FAAFP, presents,
"Is Vitamin K the Way? Rethinking Treatments for Nocturnal Leg Cramps". Frankly Speaking Ep 439.
Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frankly-speaking-about-family-medicine/id1194659367
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