Monday Rx: L.A. County COVID Updates, Data Breaches, Population Health and Upcoming Events September 27, 2021 150th Installation, California, COVID-19, COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate, Data Breaches, Doctors, HOD, LACMA, LANES, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Medical Practices, Membership Appreciation, NEPO Summit, Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations, Physician Practices, Physicians, Practice News, Vaccine, Virtual Focus Group, Virtual Townhall 1655 COVID-19 Vaccine, Children and Adolescents Weekly hospitalization rates from COVID-19 have recently increased for children ages 11 years and younger. Hospitalization rates among children and adolescents are at their highest levels since the start of the pandemic. These increases come as many schools across the country have returned to in-person learning. Masks are important for reducing the spread of COVID-19 among children in K–12 school settings. To keep kids safe, CDC recommends masks for all students, teachers, and staff while indoors, along with COVID-19 vaccination and testing, and physical distancing. Read more about this in the COVID Data Tracker. Over the past 8 months, Los Angeles County has distributed more than 12 million doses of vaccine but infections amongst children remain a concern. Los Angeles Department of Public Health is focused on getting children vaccinated and launching a weekly dialogue with pediatric and family medicine providers to discuss questions related to the COVID-19 vaccine including storage/handling, onboarding processes, funding grants, best practices in administering vaccines and answer any questions or concerns. These sessions will be informal with leadership representation from the local chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Department of Public Health. LACMA’s Public Health Council is sharing the information with various networks, pediatric practices and other community based organizations. To join the first call scheduled for tomorrow, click here. Meanwhile, California estimated earlier this month that it would need to administer an extra 63 million doses by the end of 2022 — if initial shots for children younger than 12 were approved and boosters were open to everyone. U.S. health officials late last week endorsed booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine for all Americans 65 and older — along with tens of millions of younger people who are at higher risk from the coronavirus because of health conditions or their jobs. California, with nearly 40 million residents, has the lowest transmission rate of any state and nearly 70% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated. That leaves nearly 12 million people not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated. Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s health secretary, said the state will rely largely on pharmacies and primary care providers to give boosters to seniors while some large counties and healthcare groups will use mass vaccination sites. Data Breaches Impacting Medical Practices Are on the Rise Physicians know how to prevent and treat many viruses. But, what about viruses that can destroy a practice? Threaten the identities and personal, private patient health information? Our partner, Mercer now provides coverage to protect you against insidious computer viruses, malware, employee mistakes, employee malice, and other events that threaten the integrity of the information that you are responsible for, and ultimately the integrity of your practice. There is also coverage for ransomware, and a suite of value-added services to assist you in preventing and managing cyber incidents should you become a victim. To learn more, visit www.countycmamemberinsurance.com. To speak to a Client Advisor call 1-800- 842-3761 or email cmacounty.insurance.service@mercer.com. LACMA and LANES: Leveraging Technology to Help You Manage Population Health Whether your practice or organization has already invested in population health tools or it needs to build a program from scratch, LANES (health information exchange) is leveling the population health capabilities across L.A. County for all providers. LANES enables both technology and data to empower providers to fully engage with Population Health programs that may have been out of reach. Rich population-health data holds the potential to help transform our regional healthcare ecosystem. Our clinical data insights ─ medical, behavioral and socioeconomic ─ offer 360 insights to patients’ personal health information to identify gaps, better inform care decisions and make actionable interventions in real time. LACMA now joins our other membership partners like St. John’s Well Child, Angeles Community Health, Los Angeles Department of Public Health, UCLA Health. What Specific Value-Added Benefits Could We Achieve in Using LANES? LANES delivers a wide array of services that will result in a ROI for every participant. LANES supports this statement by providing 2 business use cases where we track and measure results and prove ROI during the initial 2-year agreement term. Additionally, the following are some value-added benefits each participant can expect to receive: Access to Los Angeles County Department of Health Services medical records. LANES is the exclusive electronic source of these records. LANES will give your clinicians access without having to manually request and wait for medical records. LANES is building a gateway for integration with the CURES database, State Disease and Public Health Registries, VA and Social Security Administration which will provide data more accurately and easily. LANES will have an active role in the facilitation of the Social Determinants of Health and Whole Person Care programs saving participants integration costs with these program systems. LANES will be facilitating sharing of Advance Directives, POLST, and EMS/Out-of-Hospital DNR forms across the care spectrum in real-time at the point-of-care. To learn more, contact Brad Hibbard, LANES Chief Strategy Officer: brad.hibbard@lanes.org or call Brad: 949-633-3900. Technology News for Practices CVS has been a big name in the return-to-work space. First with its Return Ready offering that helps organizations test, screen and contact trace among its population. Then with its partnership with Salesforce to create a single digital, data-driven testing and monitoring program. Since COVID-19 vaccines have become available in the U.S., companies have also begun creating tools to help manage vaccinations in schools and offices. If you’d like to learn more, let me know by replying to this email. Daily COVID-19 Data Updates LACMA continues to track and promote the latest COVID-19 data in partnership with the Los Angeles Department of Public Health. ICYMI: LACMA's 150th Virtual Installation Thank you all for joining us at our 150th Installation Cocktail Hour and Virtual Program. We laughed, we celebrated and we honored our incoming President and Officers. You can still watch the replay and view the virtual program book by visiting our website here. You can also donate to Medical Student Scholarships here. You're Invited to a Virtual Focus Group Your experience as a physician matters to AAIMM! Please join AAIMM for a virtual focus group on September 29, 2021, from 6:00-7:30 pm. The LA County African American Infant and Maternal Mortality Initiative (AAIMM) is working on a project to help encourage conversations between individuals and their health care providers about their thoughts, desires, and plans about getting pregnant -- and we want to hear from you! Please join us to connect with other primary care providers and share your thoughts and experiences that will inform the development of a public awareness campaign that will launch later this year. All participants will receive a $75 flexible gift card (i.e. VISA GIFT CARD). Space is limited for this virtual discussion that will be held on zoom, to make sure everyone’s voices are heard. The zoom link to join us will be sent after you register. Register Today! HOD Issue Reports Now Accepting Testimony; Virtual Townhall This Thursday The 150th Annual Session of the California Medical Association (CMA) House of Delegates (HOD) will tackle two major issues when it convenes October 23, 2021. Due to the ongoing public health emergency and the high levels of community transmission, the meeting will be held virtually again this year. CMA physician delegates meet annually to establish broad policy on current major issues that have been determined to be the most important issues affecting members, the association and the practice of medicine. The delegates will tackle two major issues this year. The Major Issues Reports are now posted and open for testimony in the discussion forums through October 8, 2021. Racism and Other Barriers to Health Equity (comment | download) Corporatization of Health Care (comment | download) To expand opportunities for member engagement, CMA will be holding a virtual Major Issues townhall so members can offer verbal testimony on the Major Issues recommendations. CMA's townhall will be Thursday, September 30 (6-8 p.m.). The time block will be divided up with one hour per issue. 6-7 p.m.: Racism and Other Barriers to Health Equity 7-8 p.m.: Corporatization of Health Care Members can join and leave the meeting at any point. The townhall is open to all members, but advance registration is required. If you cannot join the virtual townhall, please use the discussion forums to submit testimony. Click here to learn more about the House of Delegates. Membership Appreciation We will be celebrating LACMA’s 150th Anniversary with our members at the Huntington Library in the Rose Hills Garden Court on Saturday, November 6, 2021, from 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm. We would love for you to join us! Click here to RSVP or email Lisa La at Lisa@lacmanet.org. Webinar: Discussion on the COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate and Workplace Issues Discussion on California’s COIVD-19 Vaccine Mandate and Workplace Issues In this webinar, a follow-up to the Return to Work Issues for CA Physician Employers webinar, presenters will provide information on COVID-19 compliance obligations for California physician employers, COVID-19 testing/vaccination issues, and best practices in response to the recent vaccination orders for health care workers issued by the California Department of Public Health. This one-hour webinar will be structured as a question and answer discussion between Joey Cachuela, California Medical Association legal counsel, and the principal of Rivas Law, APC, Oscar Rivas. Date: September 30, 2021 Time: 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm Register Here Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations 18th Annual Summit Enduring a Pandemic: How Diverse Clinical Settings Adapted and Succeeded Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations (NEPO) Summit Please join us for the 18th annual Network of Ethnic Physician Organizations (NEPO) Summit on Friday, October 8, 2021, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (PT). This much-beloved event is back in a new virtual format. The NEPO Summit is known for bringing together some of the most diverse voices in medicine and providing an opportunity to discuss critical topics in health care through the lens of multiculturalism and health equity. The theme for this year is “Enduring a Pandemic: How Diverse Clinical Settings Adapted and Succeeded.” This year’s event will be divided into two sessions. Morning Session - CME Accredited – 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The morning session will feature a deep dive on the topic of California’s new Cultural and Linguistic Competency (CLC) and Implicit Bias (IB) standards in continuing medical education (CME). Recent legislation has brought this issue to the forefront of public attention. We will hear from experts on how an awareness of CLC and IB can benefit physicians and patients alike. As a result of this activity, participants will be able to: Summarize key concepts in Implicit Bias and Cultural Competency/Humility in the delivery of healthcare. Assess personal implicit bias that may contribute to unequal treatment and disparity of healthcare. Demonstrate effective communication and delivery of care to diverse patients Apply leadership skills in CLC and IB to reduce health disparities and improve the health of patients within your organization. Date: October 7, 2021 Time: Morning Session: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. | Afternoon Session: 1:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Register and Learn More Here #MondayMotivation "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much." Gustavo Friederichsen Chief Executive Officer Los Angeles County Medical Association “If it matters to our LACMA members, it matters to me.”