December 19, 2023

NEED TO KNOW

Please note that there will be no Rounds on December 26, 2023.

VMS Policy Team Prepares for the 2024 Legislative Session

The 2024 Vermont Legislative session will begin on January 3^rd and the VMS Policy team has been busy meeting and educating lawmakers on our 2024 policy priorities. Primary care continues to be a top priority for the VMS and is also a focus of our legislative champions in both the House Health Care and the Senate Health and Welfare Committees. The VMS, along with several partner organizations, are promoting our 2024 Primary Care Platform, which advocates for adequate reimbursement rates, reduced administrative burden, increased spending in primary care, payment reform centered on primary care and ongoing funding for primary care scholarships and loan repayment funding. VMS is working with several Health Care Committee members to propose a bill aimed at reducing and streamlining prior authorizations.  The chair of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee has also introduced a bill to reduce prior authorization and to increase the percentage of commercial healthcare spending on primary care. Legislators will also be focused on understand the future of payment reform in Vermont, including the AHEAD Model.  Other VMS priority legislative initiatives include a bill to end the sale of flavored tobacco and a bill to provide Medicaid coverage for obesity treatment. The VMS is closely monitoring legislation to expand the scope of practice for optometrists to include surgical procedures and Cannabis Control Board recommendations regarding updates to the medical cannabis program.

VMS will provide members with many opportunities to get involved in advocacy. Join us for our Vermont's Voices of Advocacy Breakfasts and our upcoming advocacy training on January 11th, 2024. Click here to learn more. 

Holiday Message from Vermont Practitioner Health Program Director Dr. Kloster

The expectation for holidays is to be a time of celebration with loved ones.  With a healthy life balance, many of us are fortunate to experience holidays in this way.  But when we struggle with our mental health generally, or if we find ourselves in circumstance where there is a gulf between our expectations and our actual situation, holidays can exacerbate uncomfortable feelings. 

As physicians we are more vulnerable to mental health struggles, yet typically more reluctant to seek help.  The Vermont Practitioner Health Program is a confidential resource for physicians struggling with their mental health and/or substance use. If you are in need of help, please contact us. 

Nels Kloster, MD

Medical Director, Vermont Practitioner Health Program

802-223-0400 (confidential phone)

Your Continued Help Needed – Medicare Payment Fix

As you know, the VMS, AMA and other state and national medical societies have been sounding the alarms that physicians are facing yet another in a series of looming Medicare payment cuts, this time to the tune of 3.37% starting in January 2024.  

With all the Congressional gridlock in Washington, DC the outcome looked bleak – until a bi-partisan group of legislators led by Rep. Greg Murphy, MD (R-NC) introduced H.R. 6683 the "Preserving Seniors' Access to Physicians Act." The legislation, if enacted, would completely eliminate the scheduled 3.37% physician payment cut.

Please contact the Vermont Congressional Delegation today and urge them to fix the flawed Medicare physician payment system by supporting H.R. 6683.  If Congress includes this critical legislation as part of the 2024 appropriations package, a potentially disastrous situation for Medicare patients and their physicians could be avoided, but time is running out.  

Congress only has until January 19th to act, avoid a government shutdown and fund programs for the coming year. Please take action now.

Salary Data & Contract Review Tips

Wednesday, January 24^th, 12-1pm

VMS has recently partnered with Resolve to help connect members to physician contract review services and access to compensation data. Join Resolve CEO Kyle Claussen to learn tips about physician employment contracts.  How do you know what you are worth? What's in a normal contract? How do you know if you have leverage?  Kyle will address key contract provisions including:

• Compensation
• Call Coverage
• Maternity Leave
• Non-competes
• Side Gigs
• Intellectual Property
• Private Equity Buy-outs

Bring your questions! Whether you are considering your first job after residency, thinking about a position change or just want to understand what is in your current contract, this webinar is for you.

Kyle Claussen is the CEO of Resolve, an attorney and physician compensation and contract expert. He has spent the last decade advocating for physicians in their employment contracts. Kyle is married to an ophthalmologist, has 3 kids, and a dog.

CDC Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Advisory: Urgent Need to Increase Immunization Coverage for Influenza, COVID-19, and RSV Immunizations and Use of Therapeutics

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Advisory last week to alert healthcare providers to low vaccination rates against influenza, COVID-19, and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). In addition, a recent increase in cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) following SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United States has been reported. Healthcare providers should administer influenza, COVID-19, and RSV immunizations now to patients, if recommended. Healthcare providers should recommend antiviral medications for influenza and COVID-19 for all eligible patients, especially patients at high-risk of progression to severe disease such as older adults and people with certain underlying medical conditions. Read more here.

VMS Advocacy Training January 11th at 6pm

Attend our Advocacy Training on January 11th and learn about health care legislation likely to advance in 2024 and how you can advocate for policies that will improve Vermont's practice environment. Our virtual training will provide you with all of the information you need to attend one or all of our 2024 Legislative breakfasts being held on select Thursday mornings throughout the upcoming legislative session. We will work off of the VMS toolkit to help you craft an effective advocacy message. Click here for the VMS Advocacy Toolkit

Click here to join the Zoom training: 

https://us02webzoom.us/j/89596651145?pwd-LzgzTThGoEtrQ0Qrc09SeDd4YVNOQTO9

Meeting ID: 895 9665 1145 

Passcode: 964364

MISC.

VMS Meets with NAACP Anti-Racism in Medicine Group

Unconscious bias in health care continues to lead to disparities in health for BIPOC Americans, and race is often embedded in protocols and systems of care that can have tragic outcomes. There is often no rationale for disparate approaches to health care based on one's race and yet, for example, as this NYTimes article highlights, Black women and their babies continue to have significantly higher mortality than their white counterparts, and Black mothers are still more likely to have C-sections scheduled than their white counterparts. VMS is working with Imogene Drakes Ph.D., FACHE, the Laboratory Director at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH), and Becky Jones, M.D., a Brattleboro dermatologist, on learning how BMH is updating systems of care to remove biased practices and to better meet the needs of all patients. Dr. Drakes and Dr. Jones are both members of the Windham County NAACP and Dr. Drakes also chairs BMH’s Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee, which has reviewed outpatient data for disparities in care by race and ethnicity. Click here to learn more about some of the changes they have advanced. Please reach out to idrakes@bmhvt.org to learn how you can make these changes in your practice.  

Update on Blueprint for Health Pilot Expansion

The Blueprint for Health has received two years of state funding for a pilot expansion that supports additional Community Health Team staff to help primary care practices address patient mental health, substance use disorder and social determinant of health needs.  The funding is now getting distributed to communities, and practices have decided whether they will participate – with the vast majority of Blueprint primary care practices joining the expansion.   The details can be found in the practice attestation form, available here. Last Tuesday, VMS Executive Director Jessa Barnard interviewed Blueprint for Health Executive Director John Saroyan, MD, and Family and Child Health Director at the Vermont Department of Health, Illisa Stalberg, regarding the expansion.  The conversation covered topics including how the expansion has incorporated feedback from practices, how it supports families and young children and how success will be evaluated.  Watch the interview here and use Passcode: s72.iY#!

Next Commissioner of Health Call Thursday, January 4, 2024 - December 7th Call Cancelled

The Commissioner of Health, Mark Levine, MD, will hold his next Public Health Update with VMS Members on Thursday, January 4th at 12:30 pm. There will be no call on December 7, 2023.

Hear about  the most pressing public health information affecting the state and nation and have the opportunity to submit questions to Dr. Levine who will answer them, time-permitting. You can join the zoom meetings here.

Commissioner Levine last joined the VMS for a public health update on November 2nd. You can find the notes here.

EVENTS

Emergency Medicine Update

January 16-19, 2024

The Lodge at Spruce Peak, Stowe, VT

Learn more and register here.

35th Annual Eastern Winter Dermatology Conference

February 1-4, 2024

TopNotch Resort, Stowe, VT

Learn more and register here.

Hospital Medicine 2024

February 7-9, 2024

TopNotch Resort, Stowe, VT

The course will provide practical approaches to common problems in hospital medicine informed by experts and the latest evidence. The target audience is comprised of physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and nurses practicing Hospital Medicine. Some of the clinicians will also be engaged in education, research, quality improvement, and management. The audience may also include Hospital Medicine program administrators, resident physicians, and medical students with an interest in careers in Hospital Medicine. Topics include Congestive Heart Failure; Pain Management; Care of Transgender Patients in Hospital; and more.

Learn more and register here.

Future Health Best: Practices for Advancing Care

March 22, 2024

Virtual and In-Person Waltham, MA

This 2024 conference will focus on the nexus of climate change and its growing impact, AI and new technologies to diagnose and treat patients, and the evolving and expanding role of physicians in this rapidly changing health landscape.

View the event flyer here. Registration will open in January 2024.

For more information about offerings from UVM CMIE, visit here.

Vermont Medical Society

134 Main Street

Montpelier, VT 05602

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