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Medigram - February 12, 2009


NEWS BRIEFS

Nominating Committee prepares slate of nominees for Society offices

The Nominating Committee members prepared a slate of nominees for Society offices during its meeting on February 6, 2009, after carefully reviewing the candidates’ written submissions, conducting interviews and engaging in deliberations. Additionally, in accordance with the Society’s Bylaws, the Board of Directors nominated a Director to serve as Treasurer. The nominees are as follows:
  • President-Elect: Thomas Luetzow, MD
  • Speaker of the House of Delegates: Charles Rainey, MD
  • Vice Speaker of the House of Delegates: Michael Miller, MD
  • Treasurer: John Hartman, MD
  • AMA Delegates: Timothy McAvoy, MD, Mahendr Kochar, MD, Michael Miller, MD, Paul Wertsch, MD
  • AMA Alternate Delegates: Andrea Hillerud, MD, Barbara Hummel, MD, George Lange, MD, Charles Rainey, MD, JD, Tosha Wetterneck, MD, Vacant Position – Unfilled
The Nominating Committee shall report the names of the nominees to the House of Delegates at the Society’s Annual Meeting in April 2009. Click here to access a brief description of each office and view the letter of intent and questionnaire submitted by each candidate for Society office.

According to the Society’s Bylaws, members of the House of Delegates may make additional nominations from the Floor of the House. Therefore, anyone who is interested in running for a Society office from the floor of the House of Delegates should plan to attend the Annual Meeting and take appropriate steps to secure a nomination and obtain the votes of members of the House. The elections for Society offices will occur Friday, April 17, 2009.


DHS issues Hib alert, recommendations

In 2008, the Minnesota Department of Health confirmed five cases of Hib in children under age 3. Three of the five cases involved children who were not immunized, including an infant who died. In light of these occurrences and a concern for a similar situation in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services last week released a “Hib Disease Alert and Immunization Recommendations.”

The Alert provides background information and reminds physicians and other health care professionals that Hib vaccine supplies in Wisconsin are adequate and to:
  • Vaccinate infants on time.
  • Continue to use best practices.
  • Be an advocate for immunization.
To read the Alert in its entirety, click here.


HHS OCR posts new Web site for health information privacy

The Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights’ Web site has been extensively revised to improve organization and ease of use for consumers, covered entities and others seeking reliable advice on the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the Patient Safety Rule.

The site contains significant new content including
  • Information for consumers on medical records, employers and health information in the workplace, personal representatives, family members and friends, court orders and subpoenas, and notice of privacy practices.
  • New home pages for the following: privacy rule, enforcement rule, emergency preparedness, patient safety rule, patient safety statute and patient safety enforcement activities and results.
To access the new health information privacy Web pages, click here.

QUALITY & EFFICIENCY

Society offers resources to help practices maximize potential of HIT

Dominating much of today’s local and national media attention is news about President’s Obama’s stimulus bill—a significant portion of which is dedicated to Health Information Technology (HIT). The Wisconsin Medical Society recognizes the challenges members may face as they implement HIT and is committed to:
  • Assisting physicians in evaluating the needs for their specific practice.
  • Helping with workflow analysis and the ongoing changes needed to effectively choose and use an electronic health record (EHR).
  • Serving as a liaison between small practices and their vendor’s technical staff.
  • Bringing similar practice groups together to share and exchange ideas and experiences with electronic health records.
Future Medigrams will contain more information about the Society’s efforts in this area. Meanwhile, to ensure that physicians are able achieve the maximum benefit from an EHR, we have developed two teleconferences. “Navigating in the Electronic Health System World—Readiness Assessment and Preparation,” being held March 3, is designed to help you assess and prepare for an electronic record. “Choose ‘n Use—The Electronic Health System and Beyond,” is scheduled for March 10 and focuses on how to purchase and use an EHR. For more information, or to register for either or both teleconferences, click here. Then in June, the Society is sponsoring an Electronic Health Record Fair to give participants the opportunity to meet with representatives from qualified systems face-to-face, putting you in the driver’s seat when purchasing a system that will have such an impact on your practice.

If you have questions or would like more information, e-mail QandE@wismed.org.

CAPITOL INSIDER

State, federal lawmakers finalizing stimulus, budget plans

Policymakers’ agendas in Madison and Washington, D.C. are dominated by federal and state stimulus packages aimed at getting the economy back on track. The approximately $790 billion federal package, agreed to Wednesday, is expected to make it through Congress in the next two days and to President Obama’s desk by next Monday. The bill holds numerous health-related initiatives, including incentives for physicians to computerize medical records systems and billions in additional Medicaid funding to states. Read more in this Washington Post article.

The federal plan’s ramifications on Wisconsin’s biennial budget are enormous. Governor Doyle’s budget proposal, scheduled for delivery to the State Legislature via a budget address next Tuesday evening, will tackle a reported $5.7 billion deficit for 2009-2011. Estimates on how much Wisconsin will receive in federal stimulus funds to help offset that deficit have varied day-by-day; but have ranged anywhere from $2 billion to $3.5 billion.

Next week will be a busy one for the state's budget; prior to the Governor's Tuesday evening budget address the State Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is expected to pass a budget-repair bill aimed at starting work on balancing a reported $600 million deficit at the tail-end of the current budget biennium. The bill will contain a variety of state spending cuts and revenue enhancers, including the much-debated Hospital Assessment, designed to capture additional federal funds for the state’s Medicaid program.

The deeper analysis begins following release of the 2009-2011 budget next Tuesday. Contact Mark Grapentine, JD, for more information.

F.Y.I. FOR YOUR INSURANCE

How well are you protected?

If you are injured in an automobile accident caused by a negligent uninsured or underinsured motorist, will you be protected? Hopefully, the answer is “yes.” But in today’s tough economic times, many drivers may be operating vehicles without insurance or with low liability limits.

The time to discover that your uninsured/underinsured motorist limits are inadequate to reimburse you and your passengers for medical expenses, lost wages and other injury-related losses is not after an accident occurs. Instead, Wisconsin Medical Society Insurance and Financial Services encourages you to evaluate your automobile policy to make certain your uninsured/ underinsured motorist limits are sufficient. If you have questions or want to learn more about this important coverage, contact Diane Larson at 800.975.3418.

QUALITY CORNER

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Methods: Insufficient Evidence

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) seeks to provide reliable and accurate evidence-based recommendations to primary care clinicians. However, clinicians indicate frustration with the lack of guidance provided by the USPSTF when the evidence is insufficient to make a recommendation. An article published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine describes a new USPSTF plan to commission its Evidence-based Practice Centers to collect information in four “domains” pertinent to clinical decisions about prevention and to report this information routinely. The four domains are (1) potential preventable burden, (2) potential harm of the intervention, (3) costs (both monetary and opportunity) and (4) current practice. The process and rationale used to select these domains is presented, along with illustrations of the potential use of the information by clinicians to guide clinical decision-making when evidence is insufficient. To read the article, click here.

FAQ

Question:
What is AHRQ?

Answer:
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the health services research arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), complementing the biomedical research mission of its sister agency, the National Institutes of Health. AHRQ is a home to research centers that specialize in major areas of health care research such as quality improvement and patient safety, outcomes and effectiveness of care, clinical practice and technology assessment, and health care organization and delivery systems. It is also a major source of funding and technical assistance for health services research and research training at leading U.S. universities and other institutions, as well as a science partner, working with the public and private sectors to build the knowledge base for what works—and does not work—in health and health care and to translate this knowledge into everyday practice and policymaking. For more information, go to the AHRQ Mission and Budget page at www.ahrq.gov/about/budgtix.htm.