Monday Rx: 4 Days Until the L.A. Healthcare Awards, Physicians Wellness and 150th Annual Elections April 12, 2021 AltaMed Health Services, Annual Spring General Meeting, Assembly Bill 32, California Department of Health Care Services, Eisner Health, GetUsPPE, Los Angeles Healthcare Awards, Medi-Cal, Patient Care Foundation, Pre-Authorizations 833 Four Days to Go! With just 4 days until our Patient Care Foundation Los Angeles Healthcare Awards, I hope members will join us for a great evening to honor six healthcare leaders and provide scholarships for six incredible young medical students. To donate funds click here. To bid on auction items click here. To attend the Livestream, click here or email Lisa Le at lisa@lacmanet.org. PPE Drive Continues to Impact Local Clinics Last week, thanks to the generosity of GetUsPPE.org and CMA, LACMA continued to deliver PPEs to local clinics including AltaMed Health Services and Eisner Health. Click here to view a summary of our outreach efforts. Many thanks to LACMA executive committee member Dr. Hector Flores for participating in last week’s event at AltaMed Health Services and LACMA President-elect Dr. Jeffery Lee for speaking at the Eisner Health event last Friday! Why the State Must Keep Medi-Cal Funding for Phone Appointments The California Department of Health Care Services is proposing to treat phone appointments differently when the pandemic ends. In fact, if the department has its way, phone appointments with clinicians at federally qualified health centers – like Clinica Romero will no longer be eligible for Medi-Cal reimbursements. Many of Clinica Romero’s patients don’t have Wi-Fi and other technology, so eliminating reimbursements for audio calls ignores the digital divide in our lower-income communities. As one FQHC physician puts it: “This short-sighted proposal would roll back a vital component of the telehealth programs launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect patients and health care staff.” Assembly Bill 32 would make permanent the telehealth innovations achieved during the pandemic, including Medi-Cal reimbursement for audio telehealth visits. CMA along with the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems and the California Primary Care Association are also supporting the measure. These emergency regulations transformed health care by making it more readily available to people who needed it the most – essential workers and people living in low-income communities – as well as older and rural patients. The impact has been extensive in California, where a survey of 43 health centers found 48.5% of primary care visits and 63.3% of behavioral health visits happened via telephone between March and August 2020. Pre-Authorizations Continue to be Burden Physicians Thank you to those members who took part in the survey last week. We asked members if pre-authorization requests take a significant amount of staff's time or your own time? Ninety percent responded with “yes.” We then asked: How many hours a week do you or your staff spend on preauthorization? The majority responded with “10 to 20 hours per week.” We have much work to do on this subject. I will share survey results with CMA and our government relations consultant to see what legislative fix needs to be reviewed. Physician Wellness As pre-authorizations and over documentation plague our practices, the pandemic has exacerbated stress, anxiety and depression levels. We will be launching the Mayo Well Being Index in the next few weeks to better ascertain where our members are when it comes to burnout and more importantly, what is LACMA doing about it. We have free PPE supplies, the Four Seasons Physician Retreats and over 20 companies to help physicians solve problems but we need to do more. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or comments, please share those with me. Every idea will be considered as we need to act! Email Gustavo@lacmanet.org. 150th Annual Elections and Annual Spring General Meeting The Los Angeles County Medical Association is holding its 150th Annual Election this coming June. Active members of LACMA and CMA have the privilege of nominating and voting for their preferred candidates for any vacant position. This is an exciting time of year as members who are interested in holding a leadership position or who would like to become more involved in shaping healthcare policy at the local and state level should review current vacancies and submit nominations for themselves or other members to Lisa Le at lisa@lacmanet.org. Members are also invited to participate in the Annual Spring General Meeting held on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 6:45 pm - 7:00 pm. This meeting is the last chance for members to make nominations for the 2021 Election. Can’t participate? Members may be nominated for any elective office by a petition signed by at least five (5) members eligible to vote and sent to the LACMA offices prior to the start of the General Meeting. For more information on this year’s election, please click here. To RSVP, please email Lisa Le at lisa@lacmanet.org. At the end of May, members can expect to receive a voting ballot via email. Please be sure to keep an eye out for your ballot and submit your vote! Virtual Grand Rounds: Post-Acute COVID Syndrome - In it for the Long Haul? Since last summer, patients and increasingly physicians have recognized that COVID-19 causes prolonged sequelae in a significant number of patients. As experts work to understand the nature and etiology of this syndrome, patients themselves are looking for answers and forming patient support and advocacy groups. In this grand rounds CMA will feature physicians working clinically to monitor and care for patients with prolonged sequelae, and a researcher who is investigating the epidemiology and causes of post-acute COVID symptoms. Date: Tuesday April 13, 2021 Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Register Here CME Providers: Accreditation Workshop The Accreditation Workshop is an important continuing professional development opportunity for all CME professionals, whether new to CME or experienced. This virtual webinar will be a deep dive into the accreditation rules, including the core criteria and new Standards for Integrity and Independence. Learn, meet your colleagues, and share best practices! After this activity, you should be able to: Incorporate best practices in the planning, conduct and evaluation of CME activities. Implement one improvement in planning CME activities. Assess compliance with the Standards for Integrity and Independence. Apply new knowledge to use the toolkit to identify, mitigate, and disclose relevant financial relationships. Integrate the new commendation criteria into a CME program. Cost: $75.00 (this includes both sessions) 2 part live event held: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 at 1:00pm - 4:30pm PST - Part 1 Friday, April 16, 2021 at 8:30am - 12:00pm PST - Part 2 Register Here #MondayMotivation "Be great in act, as you have been in thought." Gustavo Friederichsen Chief Executive Officer Los Angeles County Medical Association “If it matters to our LACMA members, it matters to me.”