MMS News and Announcements
DPH Offers Clarify on PMP “Narcotic”
Requirement
The
Department of Public Health issued
guidance this week on what drugs are considered “narcotics”
for purposes of MassPAT, the Massachusetts prescription monitoring program.
MassPAT regulations require prescribers to query the system prior to every
prescription for a Schedule II or III narcotic drug. The list of narcotic drugs
contained in these schedules is as follows: Buprenorphine, Codeine (and its
derivatives) including hydrocodone, Fentanyl (and its derivatives), Meperidine,
Methadone, Morphine (and its derivatives) including hydromorphone, Opium
(including DTO), and Oxycodone.
A Reminder to Renew for 2017
Renew
your MMS membership for 2017 and make sure you continue to receive valuable
benefits like your subscription to the New England Journal of Medicine and
up to 50 percent off upcoming events, including the Women’s Health Forum on April
21, 2017. Click
here
to renew online today or call 800-322-2303, ext. 7495 with questions.
MMS Committee Application
Deadline is March 3
If you would like to become more involved in the MMS,
consider participating on a committee or the Member Interest Network Executive
Council. Committee appointments are for specific terms, usually three-year
renewable commitments. We have put in place resources for distance
participation including conference calls and online meetings. Click here for details and
application forms.
MMS Committee on
Nominations Currently Seeking Candidates
|
The MMS Committee on Nominations is currently considering
candidates for nomination for the following offices: President-elect, Vice
President, Secretary-Treasurer, Assistant Secretary-Treasurer, Speaker, and
Vice Speaker. Please click here to learn more and submit your
application online.
Interviews for both
officer positions and the new AMA Delegate and Alternate Delegate positions
will be held at MMS Headquarters in Waltham on Thursday, March 2, 2017 between 4:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Applicants
should plan to be available on this date. If you have questions,
contact Linda Healy at (800) 322-2303, ext. 7008 or lhealy@mms.org.
Mindful Practice in
Medicine Workshop Planned
A Mindful Practice in Medicine workshop is planned
for March 18 and 19 at MMS Headquarters, followed by 4 consecutive Wednesday webinars. The
workshop focuses on developing a capacity for self-awareness in stressful and
demanding situations and building resilience in community. Click here for information; click
here to register.
Benefit
Buzz: Special Member Discount and Resources for PQRS Deadline
The deadline for submitting your Physician Quality Reporting
System (PQRS) measures to CMS is February 28, 2017. MMS has arranged for a
33% discount using PQRSwizard to rapidly collect, validate, report,
and submit data on the quality of care to Medicare with 99.5% success rate
and avoid payment adjustments. Click
here for more information.
Register
for the following live webcasts by PQRSwizard: Feb 15 at 5:00 p.m. ET:
PQRSwizard
and the Measure Applicability Validation Process; Feb 24 at 12:30 p.m. ET: Submitting
your PQRSwizard Report: A review of the most frequently asked
questions of 2016s.
Drs. Manson and Smith Keynote Speakers at Women’s Health
Forum April 21
JoAnn Manson, M.D. will deliver the morning keynote address at the MMS
Women’s Health Forum, “Hormones: Do They Define us? “on April 21. Dr. Manson
is a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Michael and Lee Bell
Professor of Women's Health at Harvard Medical School. Barbara L. Smith, M.D.
will deliver the afternoon keynote speech. Dr. Smith is director of the
breast program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She will also be
presented with the Women’s Health Award.
The
Women’s Health Forum, provided
by the Massachusetts Medical Society and its Committee on Women in Medicine
in collaboration with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Mary Horrigan Connors
Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology, features a lecture and panel on
transgender health, a session on the effect of hormones on metabolism and weight regulation, and a discussion on the evolution of
breast surgery by faculty from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
Also planned are
networking opportunities and an awards luncheon. The Women's Health Research
Award will be presented to Robert H. Young, M.D. , from MGH. For
registration, visit www.massmed.org/whf2017
, or contact Erin Tally at etally@mms.org.
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Education
Programs & Events
Live
CME Activities
Unless otherwise noted, all
events are held at MMS headquarters, 860 Winter St., Waltham, MA. Visit www.massmed.org/cme/events to view our full calendar of upcoming
live CME activities.
Women’s
Health Forum – Hormones: Do They Define Us?
Friday, April 21, 2017,
8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
The above activities have
been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
Featured
Online CME Activities – Risk Management Credit
The above activities have been approved
for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
For additional risk
management online CME activities, visit
www.massmed.org/cme.
This
Week in Health Care
HPC Offers Ideas for Reducing Health
Care Costs
Health Policy Commission’s executive director David Seltz said
incentivizing the use of community hospitals, setting "aggressive
targets" for reducing hospital readmissions and monitoring drug
prescribing patterns are among the ways to control rising health care costs in
Massachusetts.
Brookline Psychiatric Hospital Cited for Violations
Arbor-HRI, a Brookline psychiatric hospital,
has been cited by OSHA’s workplace safety inspectors after they discovered that
front-line employees suffered broken bones and concussions during interactions
with violently ill patients.
Partners HealthCare Reports
Operating Loss of $17m
Partners HealthCare has reported losses in a new
assessment, piling on top of pressures from higher operating expenses at its
hospitals and ongoing struggles with its insurance business.
State Employers Favor Changes to ACA
Massachusetts employers agree that the federal health care
system needs to change, but there is no consensus around what changes to make
or how to make them, an Associated Industries of Massachusetts survey found.
State
Approves Clinton Hospital, HealthAlliance Merger
Massachusetts Public Health Council approved the merger between Clinton Hospital and
HealthAlliance hospitals, with Massachusetts Health Policy Commission declining
to review the merger proposal, eliminating one layer of scrutiny.
New Physician Network Eyed for South
Shore
RPMG Physician Associates plans to break from its three-year relationship
with Beth Israel Deaconess Care Organization, moving an estimated 34,000
patients to a new physician network.
Holyoke Medical Expands ER
Facilities
Holyoke Medical Center will increase its emergency room’s treatment
beds from 26 to 40, 12 of those designated as behavioral-health beds, as part
of a new Crisis Center for Psychiatric Services, segregated from the main ED to
give those patients more privacy.
Taunton Introduces Needle Exchange
Mobile Service
Taunton rolled out a "syringe service
programming" from Seven Hills Foundation that will afford intravenous drug
users in the city a safe way to dispose of used, or dirty, needles in exchange
for clean ones.
Health Connector Adds Record Numbers
of New Patients
Health Connector, the Massachusetts online
marketplace for health insurance, added 53,000 new enrollees as of Feb. 1, the
close of open enrollment, a number that is up from the 36,000 new enrollees
that came to the market last year.
Private Ownership of Hospitals a
Growing Trend
Private ownership of community
hospitals is growing,
both in Massachusetts and the U.S. at large, a telling signal of the shift away
from nonprofit toward for-profit health care.
Gov. Charlie Baker Takes Next Steps
for ACA
Gov. Charlie Baker is already laying the groundwork
for returning Massachusetts to key elements of the state's 2006 universal
health care law, which provided a blueprint for the Affordable Care Act.
