MSSNY Pulse: August 26, 2022

August 26, 2022 admin

Message from MSSNY President Parag Mehta, MD:
Medical Students Are Our Future

Colleagues:
Last week, I had the privilege of speaking to a few of the brightest and most brilliant incoming first-year students at Cornell Medical College. As the medical students—who are our future—begin their journey to become physician healers, I encouraged them to create a bright future for themselves and contribute to changing the world. They have the power to influence and engage in many ways:

Advocate for themselves, their patients, and the world
Learn through keen observation and listening
Become a great physician through empathy
Develop leadership skills by leading with compassion
Grow into a better person by dealing with stress and burnout through gratitude, forgiveness, mindfulness, and courage over comfort
Ensure equity for all

I explained the importance of advocacy and encouraged them to engage through MSSNY on issues important to all physicians. Tomorrow’s doctors can help shape today’s health care policy, urging the Governor to veto the wrongful death legislation and to sign the many bills advocated for by MSSNY to help patients. These include prohibiting health insurers from denying care unless a physician in the same specialty reviews; ensuring patients can continue to use pharmaceutical discount programs towards meeting their often-enormous insurance deductibles for receiving needed prescription medications; and prohibiting health insurers from using a “fail first” or “step therapy” protocol for medications to treat patient mental health conditions. I also detailed the many wins MSSNY already accomplished this year, including enacting telehealth payment parity, long overdue increases to Medicaid fees, increased student loan repayment funds, defeating changes to Excess Med Mal Insurance; protecting “prescriber prevails” for Medicaid FFS and MC patients, and eliminating Medicaid utilization thresholds.

While President Biden announced a student loan forgiveness program with a $10,000 incentive, it is a drop in the ocean for medical students. Medical education costs are exceptionally high, and the average debt is $200,000.

Medical students are our future. They are the future of healthcare. I wish the medical students across the state great success as they begin their arduous and rewarding journey toward becoming our future physician healers and leaders.

Have you downloaded MSSNY’s Pulse App yet? Look for “MSSNY Pulse” in the App Store or Google Play and share your experience.

Please email me your comments and suggestions at MSSNYpresident@mssny.org.

Parag Mehta, MD
MSSNY President

Learn How to Write the Best Personal Statement for Your Residency Application: Join MSSNY IMG & EMAS Seminar Tomorrow, August 27
The first seminar hosted by MSSNY’s IMG and Ethnic Medical Association Sections launches tomorrow, August 27 at 8:30 am. Please join us to learn how to write the best personal statement for your residency application. Leaders in the medical field will teach you how to ensure your statement stands out. View flyer. Register now. Due to an overwhelming response, we have also made this webinar available via live stream. If you are unable to get in via the Zoom link (only the first 300 will be able to join), please watch the live stream. And if you are unable to make it tomorrow, a recording of the webinar will be available on the MSSNY YouTube channel soon.

Education, Neighborhood Disadvantage, and Child Brain Structure
There is a belief that neurodevelopmental alterations in childhood may mediate the association between low socioeconomic status and mental health and cognitive outcomes. This JAMA study investigates the associations of parental income, parental educational attainment, parental occupational prestige, and neighborhood quality with brain structure in children. The study included more than 11,500 children (aged 9-10 years) to comprehensively characterize psychological and neurobiological development from late childhood to early adulthood. The study’s results are meant to create programs aimed at reducing poverty that may be beneficial in mitigating some of the adverse effects of low education or neighborhood disadvantage on brain development.

Education, Neighborhood Disadvantage, and Child Brain Structure (JAMA, 8/16, Rakesh)

Rural-Urban Disparities in Diagnosis of Early-Onset Dementia
The JAMA study, Rural-Urban Disparities in Diagnosis of Early-Onset Dementia, investigates limited access to appropriate specialists and testing associated with delayed diagnosis and symptom management for patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Early-onset ADRDs are associated with a more aggressive clinical course, with accelerated cognitive and functional declines compared with later-onset ADRDs. Most patients with ADRDs are older than age 65 years. Approximately 6% have early-onset ADRDs between the ages of 30 and 65. As a result, patients with early-onset ADRDs may experience rapid cognitive decline and become highly dependent on unprepared family caregivers.

Rural-Urban Disparities in Diagnosis of Early-Onset Dementia (JAMA, 8/5, Xu, Jung, Retchin)

MSSNY YPS/Residents Social Meet Up – Friday, September 23, 2022 @ 7:00 pm
MSSNY YPS and Residents are invited to a social meet up on September 23^rd at 7 PM at Cooper Bluff Waterfront Bar in Oyster Bay, NY. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet, mingle and make contacts. View full flyer here. To RSVP, contact Kathy Rohrer at: krohrer@mssny.org 516-488-6100 x 396.

Yankees Healthcare Worker Ticket Discount
The New York Yankees are offering a discount to healthcare workers for the final homestand before the playoffs. Watch the Yankees fend off the AL East rivals, the Baltimore Orioles, from Wild Card contention and create lifelong memories here.

Health Systems Boost Pay in Competitive Market for Executives
As the stress on the US health care system grows, healthcare leadership positions are rapidly turning over. While this pressure builds, health systems have become more complex as companies consolidate, requiring additional levels of experience. This growing demand has increased the base salary for healthcare executives by 4.5 percent for 2022 compared to 2021, along with an increase in total cash compensation for executives by 9.5%. Still, the 4.5 percent overall median annual healthcare executive salary increase is less than the annual growth seen in many clinical roles. Learn more about the shift in healthcare compensation in Modern Healthcare’s “Health systems boost pay in competitive market for executives” report.

Health systems boost pay in competitive market for executives (Modern Health, 8/15, Hudson)

NYS DOH Provides Further Clarifications on Healthcare Worker Bonus Program
The deadline for “Vesting Period 1” is this Friday, September 2. The NYS Department of Health has provided a series of further clarifications on the Healthcare Worker bonus program:
Healthcare Worker Bonus (HWB) Program Townhall Series (ny.gov)

Health Care Worker Bonus Program Frequently Asked Questions (ny.gov)

There are two important updates physician offices should be aware of in these clarifications:

Private physician (and other private provider) offices treating at least 20% Medicaid eligible patients are eligible to participate (as we originally thought)
While there is a deadline for “Vesting Period 1” coming up this Friday, September 2, there will be a second opportunity in October 2022 to submit for bonuses to employees who worked for you from 10/1/21 – 3/31/22, in addition to those who worked for you for “Vesting Period 2” (4/1/22 – 9/30/22).

This is the “vesting period” schedule for eligible employees:

Vesting Period	Vesting Period Start Date	Vesting Period End Date	Employer Submission Start Date	Employer Submission Close Date
One	October 1, 2021	March 31, 2022	August 3, 2022	September 2, 2022
Two	April 1, 2022	September 30, 2022	October 1, 2022	October 31, 2022
Three	October 1, 2022	March 31, 2023	April 1, 2023	May 1, 2023
Four	April 1, 2023	September 30, 2023	October 1, 2023	October 31, 2023
Five	October 1, 2023	March 31, 2024	April 1, 2024	May 1, 2024

The Vesting Period Schedule is also available for download as a PDF.

DOH FAQ: Private Physician Practices Not Required/Eligible to Provide Health Care Worker Bonuses
As discussed in a webinar by the New York State Department of Health as well as a FAQ document updated today Frequently Asked Questions (ny.gov), the DOH has interpreted that the statute determining who/which health care providers are eligible and required to provide health care worker bonuses does not include private physician practices. As noted in the FAQ, a qualified employer includes the following:

Providers and facilities licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized under:
- articles 28, 30, 36 or 40 of the public health law
- articles 16, 31, 32 or 36 of the mental hygiene law
- article 7 of the social services law
Pharmacies registered under §6808 the education law
School-based health centers
Programs funded by the OMH, OASAS, Office of the Aging, or OPWDD, AND
Other provider types determined by the commissioner and approved by the director of the budget (However, the FAQ notes that no other provider types have been determined to be included).

Please remain alert for further updates regarding this program.

Please Contact Your Members of Congress to Prevent Steep Cuts for 2023
Physicians are urged to contact their Respective Congressional representative and Senators Schumer and Gillibrand (Stop Cuts to Medicare Payments (p2a.co) to urge that they act to prevent an 8.5% cut to their Medicare payments in 2023.

Late last year, MSSNY worked together with the AMA and state and specialty societies across the country to successfully persuade Congress to delay a “perfect storm” of Medicare payment cuts totaling 10% that, if permitted to be implemented, would have severely impeded patient access to care. However, these provisions expire at the end of 2022.

MSSNY is again working with the federation of medicine as part of a group effort to prevent the cut. Before the end of the year, we are asking Congress to:

Extend the Congressionally enacted 3% temporary increase in the Medicare physician fee schedule
Provide relief for an additional 1.5% 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% PAYGO sequester necessitated by passage of legislation unrelated to Medicare

If these changes were not going cause enough damage to community physician practices, MSSNY is raising the alarm to CMS regarding a provision in the 2023 Medicare payment rule that would further reduce Medicare payments to New York physicians by decreasing the regional adjustments to Medicare payments arising from New York’s excessively high rents costs and liability insurance costs. MSSNY has been working with the AMA and the Physicians’ Advocacy Institute to ensure that this concern is reflected in their comments to CMS about the Medicare payment rule. MSSNY will also be submitting its own comments to CMS protesting these proposed cuts.

Again, you can send a letter to your members of Congress from here: Stop Cuts to Medicare Payments (p2a.co)

Urge Governor Hochul to Sign Managed Care Reform Bills into Law
Physicians are again urged to contact Governor Hochul to ask her to sign into law a several bills supported by MSSNY and numerous patient advocacy organizations (NY Legislature Passes Legislation with Important Patient Protections During the 2022 Session – Aimed Alliance) to address hassles patients and their physicians are experiencing with health insurers.

One of these bills, A.879/S.8113, would ensure that those who make “medical necessity” determinations on behalf of a health insurance company are appropriately qualified to make those decisions. Please contact Governor Hochul and urge her to sign into law.

This bill would ensure that a health plan may not deny a request for needed patient care unless the reviewing physician is adequately qualified to review the treatment requested or provided, by requiring that such reviewing physician be board-certified or board eligible in the same or similar specialty as the physician who typically recommends the treatment or manage the condition that is under review. It would also require that such physician have a New York license to practice medicine and provide much-needed, additional protections to ensure that these patients will have coverage for the care they are expecting and entitled to receive.

To learn more about this issue, please read a recent op-ed coauthored by MSSNY members and Long Island oncologists Dr. David Eagle and Dr. Jeff Vacirca, which recently ran in Newsday. In a recent MSSNY survey, 42% of the respondents indicated they frequently have experienced denials from health insurers by reviewers other than a physician practicing in the same specialty, and 77% of the respondents indicated they at least sometimes did.

A second bill, A.1741-A/S.5299-A, would prohibit a health plan from imposing a policy that forbids a payment from a third party to count towards the patient’s deductible or maximum out-of-pocket cost-sharing limit. This practice can be especially challenging for patients that have health insurance plans with high deductibles or high copayment requirements. Please take a moment to send a letter to Governor Hochul urging her to sign this bill into law.

A third bill, A.3276/ S.5909, would ban insurance companies from applying “fail first” or step therapy protocols to treatments prescribed for patients with mental health conditions. This would help to ensure that patients can receive needed medications without unnecessary and time-consuming pre-authorization burdens, Please take a moment to send a letter to Governor Hochul urging her to sign this important bill into law.

Kings County Legislative Day
The Executive Committee of the Medical Society of the County of Kings and the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Medicine of Brooklyn are very proud to invite you to participate in our 2022 Legislative Day during our Bicentennial Year Celebrations. We are grateful for your support and legislative accomplishments to our organization and the physician community over the years.

Join us on Thursday, September 15^th, 6:00 -9:00 PM at the Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street Brooklyn, NY 11201. RSVP to Joselin Lajara, MSCK Executive Director, by Sunday, September 11th

Tel: (718) 745·5800
Email: Exec@msck.org
Fax: (718·745·5833)

New York State COVID regulation is strictly enforced. Proof of COVID vaccination or negative test 48 hours prior is required.

Save the Date: September 13 CMS and NGS Open Agenda Meeting
Join Heather Lopez, MSSNY’s Director of Physician Payment & Practice, for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services and National Government Services’ open agenda meeting. Members are encouraged to participate and open a direct communication line with policymakers that otherwise can be difficult to reach.

New York State Department of Health Healthcare Worker Bonus (HWB) Program Town Hall Webinar
The Department of Health hosted an information webinar to review with qualified employers recently enacted legislation requiring the payment of bonuses to eligible workers as per Part ZZ of Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2022. This webinar provided a general overview of the new Healthcare Worker Bonus Program web page and portal and included the following topics of interest to all qualified employers: eligibility and requirements; account registration process; vesting periods; manual and bulk upload process; frequently asked questions. Watch the webinar, for more information.

Are You Prepared for Your Next Contract Negotiation?
A physician-founded and physician-driven company, Resolve is bringing change to employment contracts by providing data and transparency into the physician market. Using the most accurate data on compensation and other contract terms sourced from actual contracts, Resolve delivers the insights and expertise to help physicians negotiate for what they truly deserve and take control of their careers. Please visit Resolve to receive exclusive MSSNY Pricing.

Classified Ads Available for:

Physicians’ search services • allied medical placements • locum tenens • practice valuation • practice brokerage • practice consulting • real estate

For help, information or to place your ad, call Roseann Raia at 516-488-6100
ext. 302
For the MSSNY 2022 Ad RateSheet, please click here.

Concierge Practice for Sale Boca Raton Florida
FOR SALE: Established Independent Concierge Internal Medicine Practice in Boca Raton, Florida. Stable turnkey operation in a pleasant work environment. Ideal for someone with the desire to transition to a better approach to medical practice. Financing available.
Contact planahead2023@gmail.com.

Hollywood Beach, FL 2 Bedroom, 2 Bath Condo Direct Ocean View
One of a kind two-bedroom two bath condo directly on Hollywood Beach and boardwalk. Terrace overlooking the ocean is cruise ship-like, with unobstructed views of the ocean and intercostal. Penthouse unit without neighbors above or adjacent. Features white 24-inch tile floors, two bedrooms with queen beds, two marble tiled bathrooms, central air conditioning and building just upgraded. Edgewaters Beach Towers, 400 North Surf Rd., Hollywood Beach. $779,000. Call 917-861-8273 / CenedeseLuis@gmail.com

30 Central Park South Office for Lease or Sale
Prime ground floor office, two AAAHC accredited operatories plus four exam rooms lab, large reception and secretarial areas and two full bathrooms. Four rooms with external windows. Will help with building to suit. Lease $16500/month with option to buy $3.3mil. Contact CenedeseLuis@gmail.com or 917-861-8273

Rheumatology Practice Sublet – Great Neck, NY
Sublet opportunity available at an established medical office in Great Neck, NY. Prime location near LIJ, Northshore University and St. Francis Hospitals. Fully equipped office with onsite parking and proximity to mass transit. Contact 516-972-2986/susanrita1@msny.com for more info.

Medical Office with Ample Patient Parking + 1 Family For Sale in the Most Desired Area of Hollis Hills. Priced to Sell!
One of a kind medical office investment opportunity and growth in the most desirable areas of Hollis Hills! This property is an S1 zoning that allows a medical practice, located within proximity of LIJ and Manhasset hospital, Lake Success Pro Health Medical offices with ample patient parking and much more, this unique property features a residential space split level style with 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths living room, dining room with a wood burning fireplace, kitchen, oversized sunroom/den, 1 car garage and laundry room.

The Lower level has a separate entrance, 4 exam rooms, a doctor’s private office, filling rooms and endless closet storage.
Conveniently located near schools, worship houses, transportation, GCP, LIE, Cross Island & Clearview Expressway, restaurants, shopping centers and much more! To inquire, please call Claudia (917-554-4158) or Bella at (718-344-2153).

Recruiting for Full or Part time (20 hours per week Chief of Medical Services). Salary is negotiable.
Oversees and directs the planning, implementation, and supervision of health and medical services for residents at the NYS Veterans Home at St Albans. Develops, implements, and evaluates medical treatment standards and procedures; and provides technical and operational guidance and direction to medical and health care staff. Serves as a medical consultant and liaison; and develops recommendations for medical assessments, treatments, and care. Implements and monitors contract agreements and the provision of contracted medical and health related services. Participates in program audits and reviews. Supervises the credentialing and privileging process to ensure that medical staff possess appropriate credentials and maintain appropriate levels of continuing education; and participates in the development of recruitment programs and hiring and selection processes. Provides clinical and administrative supervision and guidance to physicians and other health care professionals. Possession of a license and current registration to practice medicine in New York State and six years of post-licensure medical practice experience, two years of which must have been in an administrative or supervisory capacity. Must be fully COVID 19 vaccinated.

Send CV to: RecruitmentStAlbans@nysvets.org

Office Space To Share / Financial District NYC.
LOCATION:
111 John St., Ste 1460, NYC 10038 (between Cliff & Pearl St.)
A block away from the South Street Seaport. Easy access to office Central hub for all subway lines (A, C, 2, 3, 4, 5, J, Z, E), a quick walk from NJ path train.

Beautifully renovated, 1,300 sq ft. modern space. Available Monday, Wednesday, Friday and weekends.

Private rooms with pocket doors. Access to building 24/7, security/door man in the lobby, very safe. Daily rate $450. Contact (917) 514-1299 text/call.

Medical Office for Share in Medical Park with Free Big Parking Lot in Westchester County
Medical office for sublet in Medical Park with free big parking lot, located at West Harrison, border of White Plains in Westchester County. Office includes a big waiting room with a kitchen, doctors office, exam room, and reception area. All rooms are available for whole days of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Thursday (Thursday full day on every 1st and 3rd week and Thursday morning on every 2nd and 4th week each month, or we can discuss more options). Monthly rent $600 for once a week usage, $1100 for twice a week usage, $1500 for three-day a week usage. Newly renovated and fully furnished. Text May if you are interested 646-338-4803

Board Certified Internal or Family Medicine Physician
Join our caring team and our mission to provide the highest standard of healthcare to each of our patients. Medical office in Eastern Nassau County looking a for a hard-working, responsible Physician to join our team.

Responsibilities include care for, diagnosing and managing patients.

Please send Curriculum Vitae to drg2555@yahoo.com.

Rendr – Transforming Healthcare – Leadership Opportunity: Associate Chief Medical Office, SVP of Population Health, Bilingual English and Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) preferred
Job Position: Associate Chief Medical Office, SVP of Population Health in this role, you will lead and provide a wide range of support through population health, quality measures, practice transformation, Rendr360 department, House Calls, and other projects. Please send resumes careers@rendrcare.com. We are offering leadership opportunities to Physicians who are interested in providing high-quality clinical care to our patients in the diverse communities that we serve. As a rapidly growing network, we provide a supportive environment for our physicians to practice medicine under the guidance of dedicated medical leadership. www.rendrcare.com.

tagged with August 26 2022 Pulse, MSSNY News