MMA News
Physicians Put Forward Resolutions
The MMA’s 156th House of Delegates will consider about 35 resolutions at this year’s annual meeting September 16-18 in Rochester. Taking action on resolutions that help shape MMA policy and the overall direction of the organization is the main work of the House of Delegates. Resolutions are debated in reference committees, which then recommend action by the House of Delegates.
The House can vote to adopt, not adopt, refer to the Board, amend a resolution, or adopt a substitute resolution.
Among the topics the House will consider are whether the MMA should:
- Support the enactment of an “apology law” in Minnesota to encourage the disclosure of medical errors,
- Introduce legislation supporting employer-funded maternity leave,
- Support the consolidation of the East Metro and West Metro medical societies,
- Call on primary care providers to do primary dental caries prevention interventions,
- Create a drug and alcohol abuse committee,
- File a lawsuit challenging the law that explicitly exempts the state from paying for medications used to treat obesity,
- Prioritize vitamin D deficiency as an important public health issue,
- Advocate for changing the Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare programs so that enrollees would receive direct subsidies they would then use to buy high-deductible, individual health insurance policies in the private market, and
- Support a law that would make it an offense to smoke in a vehicle while anyone under the age of 18 is inside.
Visit www.mmaonline.net to find out what the House decides on these and other proposals.
Nominees for MMA Offices Announced
The MMA Board of Trustees accepted the Nomination and Leadership Development Committee’s slate of nominees during its July meeting. Nominations will remain open until the MMA House of Delegates convenes on Thursday, September 17. The House will elect officers on Friday, September 18.
The nominees are:
President-elect
Patricia Lindholm, M.D.
Secretary-Treasurer
David E. Westgard, M.D.*
Speaker of the House of Delegates
Lyle J. Swenson, M.D.*
Vice Speaker of the House
Karen K. Dickson, M.D.*
AMA Delegates
Raymond G. Christensen, M.D.*
Anthony Jaspers, M.D.*
Sally Trippel, M.D., M.P.H.*
AMA Alternate Delegates
John Abenstein, M.D., M.S.E.E.*
Gail Baldwin, M.D.*
David Estrin, M.D.*
*Candidate for re-election
MMA Asks Physicians to Weigh In on Reform
As the health care reform debate heated up in August, the MMA was encouraging physicians to contact members of Minnesota’s Congressional delegation and encourage them to pass health care reform legislation that rewards high-value care and is not based on current fee-for-service Medicare payment rates.
In addition, MMA leaders met with five of the state’s eight House members. Meetings with Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Sen. Al Franken were scheduled or being arranged in August.
MMA leaders told lawmakers that Minnesota’s physicians need reform that will achieve universal coverage and control health care costs and that is not based on the flawed Medicare payment system. Medicare currently rewards volume rather than value.
A number of provisions in the federal proposals are similar to those in the vision for reform the MMA adopted in 2005 as part of the Physicians’ Plan for a Healthy Minnesota. Thus, the MMA supports many aspects of health care reform being discussed in Congress, especially:
- the elimination of the SGR payment formula;
- the focus on prevention, primary care, and medical home;
- the expansion of health insurance coverage; and
- the insurance reforms and the establishment of an insurance exchange.
However, some of the ideas that are being proposed are generating debate, including plans for a public health insurance option. The MMA has received a number of comments about reform proposals. Some express concern about more government involvement in health care and the end of private insurance, while others highlight the need for universal coverage, even if that means the addition of a public insurance option.
To share your ideas about reform with your lawmaker, use the MMA’s email service at http://capwiz.com/mnmed/home/.