Monday Rx: Legal Briefs, Physician's Compensation, Member Benefits and Upcoming Events April 25, 2022 California, California Medical Association, CMA, COVID-19, GME Leadership Summit, Healthcare, Legal Briefs, Medical, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicine, Pandemic, Physician Compensation, public health emergency, Public Option Health Plan, ScribeAmerica, Telehealth, Town Hall, Value-Based Care, Young Physician Mixer 1351 Legal Briefs CMA Files Brief in Federal Court to Shape Corporate Bar in California CMA filed an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in a case that will shape the boundaries of California’s prohibition on the corporate practice of medicine (known as the “corporate bar”). Click here for more details. CMA also filed a declaration with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, in support of a County of Los Angeles policy that requires county employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Los Angeles County is being sued by a group of firefighters and other employees of the Los Angeles County Fire Department seeking a preliminary injunction to suspend the county’s COVID-19 vaccine policy. The declaration, signed by former CMA Trustee Steven R. Una, M.D., emphasized the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines in preventing transmission, hospitalization and death. Doctor’s Pay Increases Post Pandemic Physician compensation increased significantly in early 2022 compared with the last two years of the pandemic, according to Medscape's Physician Compensation Report2022. For the report, Medscape surveyed 13,064 physicians across more than 29 specialties from Oct. 5, 2021, to Jan. 19, 2022. All data was weighted based on age, gender, specialty, and more, based on the distribution of physicians in the American Medical Association database: Click here for more details. Young Physician Mixer & Latino Healthcare Leader Event LACMA will host the Young Physician Mixer this Friday at the Lucky Strike at LA Live! The event will bring together the future of medicine in a casual, fun atmosphere. If you would like to attend, click here. On Sunday, LACMA board member Dr. Hector Flores and I will host more than 20 Latinx healthcare leaders at the Frida Kahlo Exhibit. If you are a Latino physician leader, contact me here to attend as tickets are limited. Added Benefits Pleased to share that we are in negotiations with ScribeAmerica to bring scribe services to our members! ScribeAmerica is the nation's largest and most progressive medical scribe company. Serving over 3,500 partners in all 50 states, their team of project managers custom design, hire, train and manage medical scribe programsspecific to our partner's needs. Webinar: The Future of Telehealth During the COVID-19 pandemic, many practices implemented telehealth for the first time. Now, physicians and their patients are starting to think about what happens to telehealth if and when the public health emergency comes to an end. Recent developments at the state and federal level are bringing the future into focus. Date: April 26, 2022 Time: 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm Register here. Webinar: Thriving in Practice Through Value-Based Care With growing value-based care contracts, more physicians are taking the leap into the world of value-based care, but not all are succeeding. The complexities of managing changing benchmarks, different payor relationships and decreasing fee-for-service revenue is putting a strain on primary care physicians and health centers that have already seen anywhere from a 10-30% decrease in revenue due to the pandemic. In this practical session with CMA Vice President of Health Information Technology David Ford and partner organization Aledade, learn the tools necessary to ensure that your practice or health center takes the steps required to succeed this year. 1. Consider the basics of value-based care, what metrics matter and how to thrive. 2. Evaluate your practice or health center workflows and share ideas to improve outcomes for patients. 3. Identify barriers and blockers that hinder advancing in value-based care. 4. Develop a concrete action plan to bring home to adopt in your practice to thrive in practice, despite circumstances and the current pandemic. Date: April 28, 2022 Time: 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm Register here. 2022 GME Leadership Summit (Virtual) Graduate medical education (GME) is a critical workforce development strategy in addressing California's physician workforce shortages. Physicians for a Healthy California's (PHC) GME Leadership Summit is a unique educational and exciting networking event. The GME Leadership Summit aims to develop and sustain new GME programs in medically underserved areas and specialties by convening subject matter experts and thought leaders to provide insight and expertise. All GME champions are invited to attend, especially physician workforce development leaders and those looking to start new GME programs, as well as newly designated institutional officials, program directors and program coordinators. Date: May 5, 2022 Time: 10:00 am - 4:30 pm (tentative) Register here. The Role of a Public Option Health Plan to Achieve Universal Coverage Join us to discuss the role of a public option health plan with the Chief Executive Officer of L.A. Care Health Plan John Baackes, moderated by our President-Elect Omer Deen, MD and Board Member Hector Flores, MD. Our objectives are: List the essential components of a Public Option Health Plan Describe how a public option plan would improve coverage, make health care coverage more affordable for consumers, and equitable for providers Describe how a public option plan would improve our state’s goals for quality, value-based performance, and ability to address social drivers of care Identify, explain and discuss how to reduce the barriers in cultural and linguistic, health equity disparities and implicit bias in caring for patients in a public option health plan. Date: May 9, 2022 Time: 6:00 pm This program qualifies for 1 hour of CME credit. Register here. A Case Study: Fraud Enforcement in Medicare Advantage This joint education program will address emerging issues for providers and healthcare lawyers. We will use a real-life case study (the Sutter case) to explore the interplay between Medicare Advantage and Medicare fraud and abuse, when health plans delegate risk adjustment to physicians and share financial risk with them. In these arrangements, who has responsibility/liability for coding: the plan, the delegated physician organization, the physician, others? When does education about coding become pressure to upcode? What protections are there for physicians or others who want to raise objections? What factors increase and decrease risk? What types of conflicts can arise? What are the key takeaways? Date: May 19, 2022 Time: 5:30 - 6:00 pm Registration | 6:00 - 8:00 pm Program 2 hrs. MCLE and CE Credits (Including 1 hour Legal Ethics) Register here. #MondayMotivation "Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later." Gustavo Friederichsen Chief Executive Officer Los Angeles County Medical Association “If it matters to our LACMA members, it matters to me.”