Vital Signs This Week
April 17, 2015

President Signs Landmark Medicare Payment Law
President Obama has signed into law legislation repealing the flawed Medicare payment formula that has plagued physicians for more than 17 years.
 
The president, who signed the bill Thursday afternoon at a White House ceremony, called it a “significant bipartisan achievement” and said the new law helps Medicare patients by giving assurance to doctors about their payments.
The legislation to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate, or SGR, passed the House and then earlier this week, the Senate, by overwhelming majorities.  The approval came just hours before yet another payment patch was set to expire and Medicare would have been forced to cut physician payments by 21 percent.
 
The new legislation guarantees physicians a 0.5 percent rate increase every year through 2019, when a series of quality incentive payments become available. The first 0.5 percent increase takes effect July 1, 2015, followed by another on Jan. 1, 2016.
 
MMS President Richard Pieters, MD, thanked the hundreds of Massachusetts physicians who contacted members of Congress earlier this month to urge passage of the bill.
 
“We could not have done this without you,” said Dr. Pieters. “Your work on behalf of your patients, your practice and your colleagues was tireless; and your voice was heard.”
 
Related links:
 
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NEW Online Opportunity: the MMS Annual Education Program Experience
 
 
 
This year's Annual Meeting is scheduled to take place April 30 to May 2, 2015 at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center in Boston.  Online registration is currently available.
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International Medical Graduates Section 2015 Annual Reception
"From Kaohsiung, Taiwan to Harvard Medical School to Lahey Medical Center: A Second Generation Immigrant Physician and What My Parents Taught Me" featuring  Chi Huang, MD associate chief medical officer of Lahey Burlington Hospital, on Thursday, April 30 at 5:00 p.m. World Trade Center, Boston.  All are welcome.  Register here.
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The MMS Committee on Information Technology Presents Apps Invade Healthcare: Why You Should Care May 7
Join us for live event with featured speakers and open discussion on May 7 at 6:00 p.m. in the Longwood area of Boston. Subjects will include next generation EHR interoperability, Apple Healthkit, and modular EHR technologies. Students and residents can register on the MMS website for free. Light dinner included. More info and registration
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Massachusetts Medical Society & Alliance Charitable Foundation Announces 18 Grants for 2015
The Massachusetts Medical Society & Alliance Charitable Foundation has awarded 18 grants totaling $234,00 to agencies across the state to support a variety of health and medical services, including mental health, substance abuse, teen health, violence prevention, and care for the uninsured and underinsured. Read more here.
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MMS Submits Public Comment on PCMH Certification Program
The MMS recently submitted public comment regarding the Health Policy Commission’s proposed Patient Centered Medical Home certification program. The PCMH certification—mandated in the 2012 “Chapter 224” cost containment bill—is a voluntary program designed to recognize innovative, coordinated, value-based primary care practices.  While the MMS praises the HPC’s decision to base the certification upon the existing, widely-recognized National Committee for Quality Assurance’s PCMH certification program, MMS cautions the HPC about several concerning proposed modifications to the program. Read the MMS testimony here
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Renew Your MMS Membership Today
PLEASE NOTE: If you have not renewed your MMS membership, it will be subject to termination at the next MMS Board of Trustees meeting. Renew today by calling (800) 322-2303 ext. 7495 or visiting www.massmed.org/renew
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Benefit Buzz: Free athenahealth Webinar
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Live CME Activities 
Unless otherwise noted, all events are held at MMS headquarters, 860 Winter St., Waltham, Mass.
 
Choosing Cardiac Stress Tests Wisely
April 22, 2015
Location: Virtual (via live webinar)
 
 
 
Annual Education Program, Physicianship and Teamwork - Webinar
May 1, 2015
Location: Virtual (via live webinar)
 
 
May 13, 2015
Location: Virtual (via live webinar)
 
 
Global Health Fair
May 16, 2015
 
 
13th Annual Symposium on Men's Health
Thursday, June 18, 2015
 
The above activities have been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit
 
Save the Date
 
 
Caring for the Caregivers X: Enhancing the Quality of Your Professional Life
 October 20, 2015
 
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.

Partners to Hold onto Neighborhood Health Plan

Partners HealthCare, which a few months ago considered selling Neighborhood Health Plan because of record-high losses, said it will hold onto the insurer because its financial condition has improved.
 

Spaulding's Closure Could Change Plans for North Shore Expansion

The decision to shutter Spaulding Hospital — the old Shaughnessy-Kaplan rehab facility — adds yet another wrinkle to future plans for North Shore Medical Center's campuses in Salem and Lynn.
 

Baystate Health Chief Warns Health New England Could Exit Health Exchange
 
Dr. Mark A. Keroack, president and chief operating officer of Baystate Health, is warning that the use of current methodology to assess risks to insurers in the health care market in Massachusetts could cost smaller insurers millions of dollars.  
 

Opioid Task Force Doctor: More Treatment in Mass. Needed

Dr. Robert Roose, chief medical officer of addiction services for the Sisters of Providence Health System and a member of Gov. Charlie Baker's working group on opioid addiction, said feedback from now concluded public meeting sessions across the state indicates a demand for greater access to treatment services, coordination of those services and greater community support when an individual is released from treatment.
 

State Helps Bring Behavioral Health Online

Last week, the state's health care IT agency, Massachusetts e-Health Institute, or MeHI, announced a round of grants that will help behavioral care providers. It is the first set of grants intended to help behavioral health providers invest in records systems that reduce health care spending while improving the quality of care. 
 

Resurgence of Hepatitis C in Mass.
 
The opioid epidemic that is killing hundreds of intravenous drug users who overdosed this year in the state has resulted in a Hepatitis C epidemic, according to state health officials. Most of those drug users, they note, are people younger than 30 who probably used contaminated syringes.
 

Tick-Borne Diseases on the Rise

Experts on Lyme disease say the Cape and Islands is ground zero not only for Lyme, but also a growing number of tick-borne diseases . Related news: Docs issue Lyme disease alert
 

House Calls Make a Comeback in Southeastern Mass.

Dr. Timothy Lowney is among a small number of physicians who've revived the traditional practice of house calls. Unlike the family visits of generations past, Lowney concentrates on older patients with chronic health problems. 
In This Issue
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