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February 9, 2011
2011 House of Delegates Elections
The Louisiana State Medical Society
(LSMS) installed its 131st president, Dr. Dean Griffen of Shreveport, Louisiana, at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the House of
Delegates. The meeting was held February 4-5, 2011 at the Hilton Capitol Center in Baton Rouge.
“I look forward
with great anticipation to the opportunity to work with other leaders and staff of the Louisiana State Medical Society,”
said Dr. Griffen. “Advocating for patients and their physicians, we will seek to identify and champion opportunities
to achieve the best health care possible for Louisiana’s citizens during these especially challenging times.”
Dr. Griffen has been an active LSMS member since 1969, serving in several positions of leadership in over the years, including
president of Shreveport Medical Society in 1997. Over the years, he has been the recipient of numerous medical awards and
honors. Most recently, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the American College of Surgeons (2009) and the Resident
Award for best teaching faculty at LSUHSC – Shreveport in the Department of Surgery (2007-8).
Dr. Andy Blalock
of Lafayette is president-elect; and Dr. Yoko Broussard of Lake Charles was elected vice president for 2011. In depth coverage
of the HOD elections will be available in the March 2011 issue of Capsules newsletter.
Medicaid
RACs Implementation Delayed
Read the letter to CMS' Dr. Berwick, Jan 10th: http://www.lsms.org/cms/images/stories/rac-letter-10jan2011.pdfOn February 1st, CMS’s Center for Program Integrity (CPI) and Center for Medicaid, CHIP and Survey & Certification
(CMCS) issued a bulletin to State Medicaid Directors and State Program Integrity Directors providing information on delaying
State implementation of their Medicaid Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) programs. CMS's announcement follows a recent letter
from the AMA and eighty state and specialty societies, including the LSMS, advocating for substantial direction from CMS regarding
Medicaid RAC program requirements prior to implementation. Previously, in an October 1, 2010 letter to State Medicaid Directors
and CMS’s Proposed Rule on the Medicaid RAC program, CMS stated that States were expected to fully implement their RAC
programs by April 1, 2011. In the February 1st bulletin, CMS has now determined that States will not be required to implement
their RAC programs by the proposed April 1, 2011 date. Instead, when the Final Rule on the Medicaid RAC program is published
later this year, it will indicate the new implementation date. The February 1st bulletin can be viewed at http://www.cms.gov/MedicaidIntegrityProgram/Downloads/6411racdelay.pdf.
DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein Extends Invitation to Physicians
Medical Director's
Summit, February 16, 2011 at PBRC
DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein, who presented at the House of Delegates
Saturday morning, extended a personal invitation to LSMS member physicians to attend the inaugural Medical Director’s
Summit in an effort to encourage an open dialogue between physicians and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.
During his presentation to the House, many physicians asked questions and had comments about the Department's proposed plan
for Medicaid reform. Yesterday, Secretary Greenstein's office contacted the LSMS with the summit details, encouraging members
to participate. The summit will be held Tuesday, February 16, 2011 at Pennington Biomedical Research Center located at 6400
Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808. Registration begins at 12:30 pm with the meeting formally commencing at 1:00 pm
and adjourning at 5:00 pm. The meeting will cover a range of topics, from the vision that DHH has developed, health information
technology, as well as the reform of our state’s health care system. A series of briefings on these topics followed
by an open discussion and question and answer opportunity will be offered. Continuing Medical Education Units (CME) credits
will be available for this meeting.
Registration Instructions: There is no fee for registering for this event. However, you must submit the attached
registration to Karen Stassi by fax: 985-796-1672 or email Karen.Stassi@la.govby Tuesday, February 11, 2011. If you have questions about the meeting agenda or content, please contact Jimmy Guidry,
MD at 225-342-3417, 225-342-4497 (fax) or email jguidry@la.gov.
Tenth District
Report by R. Guillot, MD.
District
10, which includes St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington Parish Medical Societies, continues to be an active participant
in the Louisiana State Medical Society. St. Tammany Parish Medical Society meets bimonthly and has an active core group of
physicians and 198 active members (199 total with one Resident member). Doubling as President this year has been challenging,
but I, along with the wonderful assistance of Gerard Pena, MD, Secretary/Treasurer of St. Tammany Parish Medical Society and
his office staff, managed to organize some interesting meetings. We invited and hosted over the past year, local and state
legislative leaders to discuss important legislative issues regarding physicians and medicine. We have also had very good,
but sometimes lively, discussions with legislative and judicial candidates from the district campaigning for office. At one
of our meetings, Dr. Larry Hollier presented an update of Graduate Medical Education regarding the LSU Health Science Center
in New Orleans, and the future plans for the center and the new teaching hospital.
A
large and significant grass-roots movement, including members, former members and non-members of the parish medical society,
has pushed and questioned the issue of Medicare reimbursement inequalities for St. Tammany Parish physicians. St. Tammany
Parish is listed as an Area 99 Medicare district for physicians (but local hospitals are considered Area 1 for Medicare reimbursements)
despite a significant population increase after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. Most, if not all, local physicians have
been significantly affected financially since the storm, and a large number of primary care as well as specialty physicians
have left St. Tammany Parish or the state of Louisiana all together for better opportunities and stability. State and Congressional
representatives have been investigating possible solutions to the payment inequalities, but only time will tell if any positive
changes will take place. If no significant changes are made, more physicians may leave the area.
Washington
Parish Medical society meets on a monthly to bimonthly schedule with social and educational programs. They have also entertained
local and state legislative leaders to discuss important medical issues at the recent legislative session. This society, led
by Luis Alvarado, MD, President, is a small but active and vocal contingent of passionate physicians who will continue to
be a very active participant in the District.
Tangipahoa
Medical Society continues to have a core number of physicians who are active members. The parish society has not had an active
President leader for the past year, but continues to be active at their local level, led by Alan Manning, MD, who is Secretary/Treasurer
and Mrs. Yvonne Manning, Medical Executive.
All
of the component medical societies will continue to work on increasing membership and recruiting more active members to increase
the role and the voice of the District and the LSMS. As a District, two resolutions will be submitted and discussed at the
House of Delegates annual meeting. One resolution involves enforcement of fair marketing practices for physicians with improper
board certification credentials for their advertised
specialty. The other involves a request for CMS to review current “payment for performance”
initiatives, which may result in the denial of health care or delivery of substandard health care to the elderly patient population,
and eventually to the entire patient population in general. A third resolution, which will be submitted by a local delegate
to the HOD, involves ethical reforms for members of hospital medical staff positions or medical staff peer review/oversight
committees and stronger LSBME oversight.
Thank
you to the members of District X and the House of Delegates for allowing me to represent District X for the past year. I look
very much forward to the next 2 years working with all of the physicians of our District component medical societies, along
with the members of the Board of Governors and the LSMS staff.
Respectfully Submitted,
Richard J. Guillot, MD
District 10 Councilor
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