What Have We Done for You Lately? (2011.09.06)

September 6, 2011

Dear Physician:

Periodically, we want to let you know “what your SDCMS and CMA membership has allowed us do for you lately." Here’s a summary of how we’ve created value for you since our last letter in January.

ADVOCACY:

• Precluded a plaintiff’s attorney MICRA bill in the legislature through aggressive preemptive lobbying.
• Defending a MICRA challenge (funded by trial lawyer groups from across the country) in a case now before the 5th Appellate District Court in Fresno.
• Killed two bills that would have limited physicians’ ability to speak independently for their patients. Medical care should be directed by physicians and physician-led organizations, not corporations — these bills would have allowed corporations to practice medicine.
• Saved the Maddy Funds (which reimburse totally uncompensated ER care) from the budgetary meat cleaver — a multi-million dollar win for San Diego ER doctors.
• Prevented additional cuts to state health programs:
  • Prevented moving children from Healthy Families into Medi-Cal.
  • Preserved $7.3 million to provide vaccines for low-income, uninsured Californians.
  • Secured $4.4 million in additional funds for breast and cervical cancer screening.
• Killed all three scope of practice expansion bills.
• In court to prevent the expansion of scope of practice by optometrists and nurse anesthetists.
• There are promising signs in the long-running court case to prospectively and retrospectively fix GPCI — thereby re-baselining San Diego Medicare rates to an urban cost of living (rather than the completely unfair and inaccurate rural) multiplier.
• Continued spending dues dollars to block Governor Brown's proposed 10% MediCal cuts — headed to the US Supreme Court this October to support our thus far successful efforts to block California from negatively impacting patient access and physician reimbursement in the MediCal program as a budget balancing act.
• Multiple SDCMS advocacy trips to Sacramento and Washington have helped our legislators understand the real world concerns of San Diego physicians.
• Held a disaster drill with the County of San Diego to determine SDCMS’ ability to respond to the need for physicians in time of a disaster.

BENEFITS:

• DocBook MD® provides the entire San Diego physician database to members with iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, and Android-based devices, with HIPAA-compliant bi-directional communication — with photos — for free!
• STAT Pharmaceuticals provides members a 10% bottom line savings.
• 4G Wireless offers deep discounts on new Verizon phones and accessories for members, family and staff.
• Discounted disability insurance program, with exceptional discounts for female members of SDCMS.
• Resources to help member physicians in selecting, buying, and implementing an electronic health record.
• Our physician and office manager advocates provided “concierge care” service to you and your staff — together they’ve resolved a combined 190 problem tickets.
• Over 25 seminars in 8 months, all available on the web. The next major courses are:
  • Microsoft Outlook for Crazy Busy Docs — September 10.
  • Pertinent Issues Facing Family / Closely Held Businesses in the Medical Field — September 17.
  • Certified Medical Compliance Officer course in October.
  • 10 Strategies for Economic Survival — October 13.
• Free annual physician mailing list, car insurance discounts, free classified ads, and the California Emergency Driving Emblem.
• Other SDCMS endorsed partners offer members significant savings on accounting services, security prescription pads, billing solutions, IT support, computer hardware, contract negotiations services, practice management consulting, banking, legal services, and collections.
• Resources to help physicians transition to the new HIPAA 5010 Transaction Standards.
• More than 850 SDCMS physicians saved nearly $460K with The Doctors Company, SDCMS’ endorsed professional liability carrier, 5% members-only discount on professional liability insurance.

COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING:

• SDCMS’ website at http://SDCMS.org is highly ranked for many typical patient searches — so make sure your customizable physician profile is up-to-date.
• The August and September San Diego Physician issues will show you and your office manager how to take advantage of our newly structured SDCMS and CMA member benefits.
• San Diego Magazine’s May 2011 “Health Annex” published contact info on SDCMS (and only SDCMS) physicians.
• Free classified ads on our website and in San Diego Physician.
• We sent out 14 issues of our bi-weekly, commercial-free e-newsletter, “News You Can Use” (NYCU). If you’re not getting NYCU, send me an email at Gehring@SDCMS.org, and we’ll sign you up.
• San Diego County’s media outlets continued to turn to SDCMS when looking for the physician’s perspective on stories, including Blue Shield’s announcement that it plans to hike premiums by an average of 30%, the DMHC’s “timely access” regulations, polio’s continued existence, the role of nurse practitioners in the provision of healthcare, Doctors Express franchises opening up in San Diego County, and more.
• Business section front page and editorial page coverage and citations for SDCMS’ points of view.
• You can follow latest healthcare news and updates from SDCMS on Twitter (go our website for instructions).

ENGAGEMENT:

• SDCMS spoke at six general staff meetings and medical executive committees — and we have eight more scheduled in the next months — can we speak to yours?
• SDCMS Spring Social had 70+ physicians/guests, and our SDCMS Summer Social had 40.
• 2012 was our most successful White Coat Gala — with over 260 physicians, legislators, local VIPs.

INFRASTRUCTURE:

• Expanded our membership team to improve our service to you.
• Major (and we do mean major) upgrades to the depth and fidelity of the database for San Diego doctors.

SDCMS FOUNDATION:

• Project Access San Diego, the flagship program of the SDCMS Foundation, now counts more than 560 volunteer physicians in its corps providing access to specialty care health services to underserved San Diego residents.
• The 2010 Annual Report was recently mailed throughout the community to illuminate the good work of our volunteer docs.
• As the Foundation's cash expenses are covered entirely by donations, please consider adding your contribution to your dues commitment when you receive your statement in mid-September.

WHAT’S NEXT:

• We will, for the first time, offer a multi-year discount program for small groups and solos.

What are you doing that you’d like us to know about? What more do you need us to do on your behalf? Contact us directly. Our email addresses are President@SDCMS.org and Gehring@SDCMS.org respectively.

Finally, we ask for your help in telling your nonmember colleagues what SDCMS and CMA are accomplishing. Please encourage nonmember physicians to join at SDCMS.org so that we can fulfill our vision of “Physicians United for a Healthy San Diego.”

Bob Wailes, MD, President, SDCMS

Tom Gehring, CEO / Executive Director, SDCMS