Urgent: Call your representative about new health care bill

What’s up in advocacy and policy

Urgent: MMS issues call to action on health care bill

The Medical Society has issued a call to action to its membership urging physicians and medical students to contact their state representatives and oppose a new proposed health care bill (House No. 4605). This health care cost containment bill would increase physician license fees as well as impose new taxes on office-based surgical centers, which have been consistently identified as providing the high-value care that the state should promote, not penalize. Further, the proposed bill adds to physicians' administrative burdens and threatens to jeopardize physicians' medical licenses upon failure to comply with onerous out-of-network billing disclosures that are far more stringent, complex, and time-consuming than those of any other state that has tackled this issue. MMS urges physicians to contact their legislators to express their opposition to this bill. For your representative's contact information and a sample email, click the button.

Reminders: Stuff you should click on

Watch Bill Gates and world-class panelists at #epidemicsgoviral
Revisit or catch up with the experts on epidemics who featured in the Annual Education Program hosted by the New England Journal of Medicine and the Massachusetts Medical Society in April. The event, Epidemics Going Viral, is available online (click below). Segments include:

• Bill Gates highlights the important role of innovation in mitigating the impact of future epidemics, and has a wide-ranging conversation with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dean Michelle Williams, SM, ScD
• In Acquiring Knowledge While Saving Lives, experts moderated by Jeffrey Drazen, MD, discuss the challenges and benefits of conducting research in the midst of an epidemic
• In How to Identify an Epidemic – Past, Present, and Future Lessons, experts moderated by Harvey Fineberg, MD, PhD, examine the science and data required to detect an epidemic in a timely manner 

Save the date: Casual networking event on the Cape

Please join your colleagues and friends for an evening of professional networking, with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks. Connect with physicians from across organizations and specialties, make new professional contacts, and meet MMS leaders. Physicians (members and nonmembers) and your guests are welcome. The event will be held on Saturday, July 28, 6:30-9:30 p.m., at Cape Cod Beer, 1336 Phinneys Lane, Hyannis. Please reply by July 13 to  sfrazier@mms.org or  mjussaume@mms.org. The MMS plans to bring fun, convenient, and casual networking events to all parts of the state. Questions? Call (800) 944 5562.  
Photo: Splatter Painted Boat by Arthur T. Skarin, MD, Norfolk district

Educational programs and events

Live events: Palliative care and professional relationships

Palliative Care: Aligning the Team Around the Patient via live webinar
Tues., June 19; 12:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Managing Workplace Conflict: Improving Leadership and Personal Effectiveness 
Thurs. & Fri., November 1–2

Featured online CME: Legal advisories

Legal Advisor:
Treating Hearing-Impaired Patients

Legal Advisor:
Terminating the Physician-Patient Relationship

Legal Advisor:
Legal Duties When a Patient Raises Suicide

Quote of the week

"How many others have been driven to such despondency with the mixture of sick or dying patients, whom we sometimes can’t fix, and an unforgiving work environment?"

—Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, director of the leukemia program at the Cleveland Clinic, writing about bullying within the medical profession (New York Times)

Tweet of the week

@APKithcartMDPhD
Vascular Medicine and Cardiology at @BrighamWomens Hospital in Boston. Self-described #AVgeek and #foodie.  

What’s new in health care

Check out the most clicked-on stories from this week's MMS Media Watch. Sign up for daily Massachusetts media roundups by email. Some publications are fully accessible only to their subscribers.

Tension between some Mass. General doctors and Partners HealthCare

Rivalries and tension between Partners and its two largest hospitals, Mass. General and Brigham and Women's, have simmered for years. But complaints are usually voiced in private, so O'Donnell's memo stands out. 

Steward voices opposition to Beth Israel-Lahey merger

A top Steward executive said that the proposed merger would give Beth Israel Deaconess and Lahey too much clout in the local health care market, threatening community hospitals like those owned by Steward. 

Brigham will disperse portraits of past white male luminaries 

Many of the paintings have spent decades in the prestigious spot. They hang in a room that hosts a growing array of cultural events, including the hospital's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. Now they'll be dispersed to department conference rooms and lobbies throughout the hospital.

Herald lambastes Mass. psychologist who defended sex offender

Joe Plaud is the psychologist you read about in yesterday's Herald, the one who gave us all a good scolding for not looking the other way while he does all he can to free the infamous Wayne W. Chapman, a child rapist.

Harvard Pilgrim CEO resigns over questionable behavior 

The president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, one of the state's largest health insurers, has resigned for " behavior inconsistent with company values," the company said.

Brigham researchers develop pill alternative to weight loss surgery

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital are developing a surgery in a pill that has the potential to replace invasive weight loss procedures, they say.

Nursing home under investigation by Mass. Dept. of Public Health 

Following a survey at Highview Nursing Home on May 25, 2018, DPH recommended that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) declare immediate jeopardy at the facility. As a result of this finding, the facility is subject to civil monetary penalties by CMS.

Harvard opioid conference focuses on preventing abuse

Doctors, pain specialists, and others in the world of medicine and health care are in Cambridge this week for Harvard Medical School's International Conference on Opioids.

Hospitals' community spending below goal

North Shore Medical Center spent $12 million on community benefits in fiscal year 2017, while Northeast Hospital Corp., which includes Beverly and Addison Gilbert hospitals, spent $5.9 million. The organizations spent $7.9 million and $5.5 million, respectively, in 2016.

Protesters demand new rules banning shock therapy at Mass. facility

An advocacy group for disabled people called ADAPT says in a news release it organized the demonstration to protest rules that have awaited HHS approval for more than two years that would ban shock therapy at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton.

Physical therapists vs. acupuncturists: Who's sticking it to whom?

Amy Mager, secretary of the Acupuncture Society of Massachusetts and vice chairwoman of the American Society of Acupuncturists, says physical therapists are performing "unregulated and unlicensed acupuncture" with scant training. She points to the thousands of hours of education required to get an acupuncturist license.