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News A Monthly Communiqué for the Vascular Society of New Jersey - July 2003 |
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| To save important resources (time and money), we are building an email address list of members. The monthly report, and other important communications, can then be easily and efficiently emailed to the organization. Please provide your name and email address. From the President….Rocco Ciocca, MD One of the important missions of The Vascular Society of Jersey is education — education of ourselves as well as others within the profession of medicine. Equally important is the education of our patients. We at the Vascular Society of New Jersey are acutely aware of the need to improve our ability to educate. With the aid of our new website (VascularSocietyNJ.org) as well as other means, we will be asking ourselves “What do we know that everybody needs to know?” The obvious answer is that there is a lot of information that needs to be shared, now more than ever. We at the Vascular Society will make every effort to keep our members up to date regarding important issues in Trenton, within the Society, and the specialty of vascular surgery in general. Moreover, we are beginning the process of reaching out to educate the community regarding our specialty and the critical role we play in improving and maintaining the quality of their lives. I strongly encourage all members of our society to become actively involved in this process.
Inform and Educate the Public Our new website (www.vascularsocietynj.org) will list VSNJ members — information on your practice, your education, your specialty areas, and provide a link to your practice website . . . if you want. We will only list the members on the site WHO COMPLETE the survey. Watch for your name on our website. Several members have already taken advantage of this exciting member benefit!
From the Statehouse . . . Tort Reform isn’t all that’s going on (even though it seems like that!) Beverly Lynch, Executive Director/Lobbyist It is traditionally a BUSY and EXCITING time in Trenton – with the flurry of numerous budget proposals, and the rush to pass the budget by the state constitution’s deadline of midnight, June 30. Then it is expected, due to the election cycle, that the Legislature will adjourn until after the November election – when they will return for the infamous and crazy “lame duck” session. In New Jersey, we enjoy an election every year. In odd-numbered years, like 2003, we have state races; in even-numbered years, federal races. In November, 2003, all 120 legislators will be on the ballot. In early January, the two year legislative session (which currently has over 6,900 bills in play), will adjourn, and reconvene the following day – all bills which have not reached the Governor’s desk will have to be reintroduced and start the process all over again.
Effort Fails to Dilute Med Mal Bill It appears that the General Assembly will go home for the summer without diluting the Senate-passed version of A-50, the medical malpractice tort reform bill. The Assembly postponed its June 26 voting session and, at this writing, left itself only one day – June 30 – to pass the budget and higher taxes needed to keep it in balance. The Assembly had planned on watering down the med mal bill on June 23 by cutting out its cap on non-economic damages and statute of limitations that would benefit physicians, hospitals and others. That plan derailed, however, when medicine’s lobbying team rounded up enough votes to prevent passage of the amendments. Democratic leaders of the Assembly had made it clear that they planned to water down the bill, send it back to the Senate and go home for the summer declaring that they had solved the medical malpractice crisis. Now it appears the Assembly will adjourn without acting on the bill. This could create pressure on Governor McGreevey to call the Legislature into a special session over the summer for the sole purpose of addressing the medical malpractice crisis. There are numerous other (than tort reform) health care-related legislative initiatives which are receiving consideration.
Physician Database Enacted A measure which would make a physician’s professional background information available via the Internet or toll free number has been signed into law by Governor McGreevey. The law requires the State Board of Medical Examiners to develop physician profiles that include ten categories of information. Medical lobbyists gained a key amendment to the bill as it moved through the Legislature: the elimination of the dollar amount of malpractice judgments and settlements made against the physician in the past five years. The Medical Society had convinced the Legislature to write into the law a provision for a private vendor to develop the database, instead of the State Board itself. Due to the budget crisis, however, Governor McGreevey eliminated that language and obligated the Medical Examiners to do all the work itself. The profiling information includes medical schools attended, GME, years of practice and awards received. Negative information includes SBME final disciplinary action, criminal convictions and the number of malpractice judgments and settlements in the past five years, categorized as below average, average or above average for the physician’s specialty. Related to the med mal crisis, two bills were released from the Assembly Banking and Insurance Committee on June 16 that would increase insurance reimbursement for ob/gyns and neurosurgeons, to 95% of usual and customary fees. These bills were sponsored by Asbman. Neil Cohen who articulates that the med mal crisis is a direct result of decreasing reimbursement to physicians. Also on June 16, the Assembly Health Committee supported a bill which is a “no-brainer” but has yet to be signed into law!!! (after several years of being in the system)….it would require managed care plans to provide fee schedules to their contract physicians. (It’s unbelievable that you have to pass legislation to force HMOs to do something like tell the physicians how much the contract will pay them!) More non-physicians working hard to be physicians – through the Legislature: A bill that expands the duties that may be performed by advanced practice nurses was released from the Senate Health Committee on May 8. The lobbyists for the family physicians and pediatricians have been working closely with the bill’s sponsor (Sen. Joe Vitale) and the NJ State Nurses Association. The bill, in its current form, would permit APNs to manage preventive care services, diagnose and manage deviations from wellness and long-term illnesses; prescribe and order treatments, including referrals to other licensed professionals; perform specific procedures consistent with the needs of the patients. The bill would permit APNs to prescribe CDS, and permits APNs to write scripts on their own prescription blanks. The bill retains the requirement that the order for medications and devices be written in accordance with joint protocols developed in agreement between an APN and a collaborating physician. Both legislative houses have approved a bill which would establish a Council on Alternately Accredited Medical School Clinical Clerkships, which would offer recommendations to improve the clinical clerkship program for foreign medical schools. The bill would also allow schools to increase the number of third and fourth year medical students participating in clerkship programs, so long as medical students who have studied at UMDNJ get priority for clerkship positions. The bill heads to the Governor for final enactment into law. |