MMA News
Physicians Generate Jobs in Minnesota
M innesota’s office-based physicians have a significant financial impact on the state’s economy, according to a study conducted on behalf of the American Medical Association. Office-based physicians generated $16.3 billion of direct and indirect economic output in their communities in 2009.
| Metro area |
Doctors |
Jobs their practices generate |
| Duluth |
680 |
3,784 |
| Fargo |
466 |
2,649 |
| Grand Forks |
216 |
1,201 |
| Minneapolis/ St. Paul |
7,282 |
41,982 |
| Rochester |
1,811 |
10,177 |
| St. Cloud |
406 |
2,310 |
Source: The State-Level Impact of Office-based Physicians: Overview Report. American Medical Association, 2011.
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The study, which was funded in part by the MMA, assessed the economic impact of office-based physicians who are actively practicing (not those who are working in other professional areas such as research, are residents, or who have full-time hospital-based practices). The report breaks down the findings by state. In 2009, Minnesota’s 11,688 office-based physicians accounted for about 84 percent of practicing physicians in the state. Those physicians directly or indirectly supported 67,483 jobs, including their own. (The full report is available at www.mnmed.org/economicimpact.)
“Although physicians are primarily focused on providing excellent patient care, physician offices and the jobs and revenue they generate are significant contributors to state economies,” says Patricia Lindholm, M.D., MMA president. “This study illustrates what people in Greater Minnesota already know, which is that having physicians not only helps the health of patients, but also helps the economic health of communities.”
The study also found office-based physicians supported $12.1 billion in wages and benefits, and generated $761 million in state and local taxes in Minnesota. In addition, Minnesota hospitals generated about $8.4 billion in wages and benefits; nursing homes and residential care facilities, $3.5 billion; and colleges, universities, and professional schools, $1.6 billion, according to the report.
MMA staff are sharing the results of the study with lawmakers in conversations about the potential economic impact of proposed cuts to the health care safety net. In April, the Minnesota House and Senate passed budgets that would reduce health care spending over two years by as much as $1.8 billion. Both budgets also would result in the loss of more than $1 billion in federal matching funds because they would repeal the Medicaid expansion Gov. Mark Dayton authorized to take effect March 1. “When you consider that physicians, nursing homes, and hospitals support about $25 billion in wages and benefits, taking more than $2.5 billion out of the state’s health care economy, as GOP lawmakers are proposing, is obviously going to cause financial hardships for these providers and the communities that rely on those jobs,” says Dave Renner, the MMA’s director of state and federal legislation.
MMA and TCMS Launch Insurance Agency
In March, the MMA and Twin Cities Medical Society (TCMS) launched an insurance agency designed to provide members with a one-stop shop for individual and group insurance products such as long-term care, disability, life, and health coverage. Called MMBR Insurance Agency, it will be part of Minnesota Medical Business Resources, a for-profit company owned by the two medical societies. Barry Weber will serve as director of the new agency.
Weber says the MMA and TCMS researched the market to find the best products and secure discounts for members. “The advantage that we can offer is that we understand physicians and their needs,” Weber says. “We’ve done the legwork to find the best products so you don’t have to.”
For further information or help finding insurance, contact Weber at bweber@mnmed.org or 612/362-3702 or visit www.mnmed.org/insurance.
MMA Annual Meeting Gets a New Look
The MMA’s Annual Meeting is undergoing some changes this year. For one thing, the meeting will be shorter. In addition, the resolution process will be streamlined. The changes were called for in Resolution 106, which was adopted by the House of Delegates last year.
MMA Annual Meeting Features Keynote on Resilience
Robert Veninga, Ph.D., author and professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, will deliver a keynote address on resilience in medical practice at the MMA’s 2011 Annual Meeting.
Veninga, who has published four books and more than 100 articles on resilience, innovation, and leadership, will share his perspective on how physicians can care for themselves while caring for others. He will answer questions such as How do you stay resilient when work demands increase? and How do you stay upbeat when there is conflict at work or with patients?
The Friday morning event is open to all members and has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.
Veninga is a member of the Teachers Hall of Fame at the University of Minnesota and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences.
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Here’s how the new process will work: The deadline for submitting resolutions this year will be July 1. A Resolution Review Committee, which will be composed of eight members including one from each of the six MMA t rustee districts plus the speaker and vice speaker of the House of Delegates, will review the resolutions and recommend whether they should be
- referred to a House of Delegates reference committee,
- referred to the MMA Board of Trustees,
- rejected or returned to the component medical society sponsoring them, or
- reaffirmed as existing MMA policy.
In August, registered delegates will have the opportunity to vote electronically on the Resolution Review Committee’s recommendations. Resolutions will be sent to a reference committee for further consideration if at least 25 percent of registered delegates submit such a request.
The electronic vote will replace the opening session of the House of Delegates. The change not only will make the meeting shorter but also will make it easier for physicians to participate.
Delegates must register by early August to participate in the electronic voting process. Please contact your component medical society or specialty society as soon as possible if you are interested in serving as a delegate. If you would like to serve on the Resolution Review Committee, please contact us at am@mnmed.org.
Ed Ratner, M.D.
Ed Ratner is on a mission to change end-of-life care in Minnesota. And to Ratner, that means helping people care for their dying loved ones at home.
The geriatrician’s interest in end-of-life and home care developed unexpectedly in the 1990s when his then 9-month-old daughter Ilana was diagnosed with an untreatable, terminal neurological illness. As a physician, he knew the demands that lay ahead. Yet, he and his wife wanted to care for their daughter at home and made that a priority.
Over the next two and a half years, he learned about end-of-life care as a caregiver and father rather than as a doctor. And he and his wife grew to appreciate the services of the home care and hospice nurses, therapists, chaplains, and volunteers. “In 1995, Ilana died at home, in our arms, never having spent a night in the hospital,” he says.
As Ratner grieved, he found a new personal mission: to make care like that his family received available throughout the community. At Allina Health
At a Glance
Name: Ed Ratner, M.D.
Specialty: Geriatric medicine
Practice: House Call Specialists, a private practice in the Twin Cities, and part-time faculty at the University of Minnesota
Medical School Medical training: University of Chicago Medical School, 1982; residency, Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, 1985; fellowship, University of Minnesota, 1987-1990
MMA involvement: Member of the MMA’s Ethics Committee and chair of the Provider Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) work group organized by the MMA
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System where he worked, he led an initiative to offer home-based care to patients nearing the end of life, and to make a bereavement-support program previously available only to families of hospice patients available to patients systemwide. He also organized a statewide end-of-life collaborative that released a report in 2002 establishing a framework for initiatives across the state. In 2008, he joined the MMA’s Ethics Committee and worked to develop a
Provider Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form for the state. That form is already being widely used in Minnesota. “This has only been in circulation for about a year, and the last I heard, about half of the nursing homes in the state are using it,” Ratner says.
One of the lessons Ratner has learned as he’s worked on home-care and end-of-life care issues is to involve others. “The individual physician can take care of patients one by one, but it doesn’t appear to me that you can make communitywide or political changes [alone],” he says. “To do that, you need people coming together and agreeing to do something, and that requires an organization like the MMA that has legitimacy and broad membership.” He says organized medicine enables physicians to leverage a large group in order to make things happen.
In addition to working on statewide policy, Ratner continues to see patients through his practice, House Call Specialists. He almost exclusively cares for patients who cannot easily leave their homes because of advanced age or multiple illnesses. And in his role as a University of Minnesota Medical School faculty member, he trains medical students to do home visits. In 2009, he created a residential service learning experience for medical students, where they lived and provided care in a residence for seniors. In addition, he has helped other provider groups develop house-call practices and has collaborated on research on home care.
Ratner was recently honored for his work. Last month, he received the University of Minnesota’s Outstanding Community Service Award, which recognizes members of the university community who make substantial, enduring contributions to the community and society.
Although Ratner appreciates such attention, he is even more pleased that his efforts are having an impact. For the first time in 2009, more Minnesotans died in their homes than in hospitals, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.