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News and announcements
What to do about prescription drug costs (Oct 25)
The 15th Annual Public Health Leadership Forum from the MMS, a half-day CME program, will explore prescription drug costs and the implications for patients, doctors, and public health. The program will identify opportunities for balancing our reliance on pharmaceutical innovation
against the price of prescription drugs as a barrier to access. Speakers include Monica Bharel, MD, MPH, commissioner of MDPH; Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, dean of BU School of Public Health, and Kenneth Kaitin, PhD, professor of medicine and director of the Tufts Center for the Study of
Drug Development. The event includes a panel discussion and networking opportunities. It will be held on October 25, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m., at the MMS Headquarters, Waltham. For more information and registration, click the button below.
Read and register
Important Interim Meeting deadlines
The
2018 Interim Meeting of the House of Delegates will be held Friday, November 30, at MMS Headquarters, and Saturday, December 1, at the Westin Hotel, Waltham. Note: the HOD will start at 9:00 a.m. both days.
Full
meeting details are online.
BML Garland lecture: Health care spending solutions
Please join your peers at the Boston Medical Library (BML) for the Annual Garland Lecture explores Why is US Healthcare Spending So High, and What Can We Do About It? Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, will present new data on health care spending and
performance across both countries, challenging common myths and pointing toward solutions. Dr. Jha is director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and professor of global health at Harvard Chan School of Public Health. The event will be held on October 23, 5:30 p.m., in the
Armenise Amphitheater at the Harvard Medical School campus. The BML is the official library of the MMS. To register, click the button below.
Register
Medical students: Call for essay contest abstracts (Nov 12)
The MMS Committee on History invites current medical students to submit abstracts related to the history of medicine or public health since the initiation of the MMS in 1781. A $1,000 prize will be awarded to the winning essay. Click the button below for submission information.
Abstracts are due by November 12.
Read
MDPH: New resources for Hepatitis A outbreak
MDPH has updated the Hepatitis A website to include information and resources on the 2018 outbreak occurring in persons experiencing homelessness or unstable housing situation and/or substance use disorder. Click the button below and find the link to Hepatitis A Outbreak: 2018. A
short data summary will be posted to the site next week and then updated weekly. Additional educational materials are also forthcoming.
Read
Get involved
Casual networking events: Peabody and Pittsfield
The Society invites you, your colleagues, and friends to an evening of informal networking with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks.
Connect with physicians from across organizations and specialties, make new professional contacts, and meet MMS leaders. Upcoming events:
- Wednesday, October 24, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at the Hotel on North, 297 North Street, Pittsfield
- Thursday, November 1, 2018, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at the Stonewood Tavern, 139 Lynnfield Street, Peabody
Please reply to
sfrazier@mms.org or
mjussaume@mms.org. The MMS is bringing convenient networking events to all parts of the state. Questions? Call (800) 944 5562.
What’s up in advocacy and policy
Federal opioid bill passes with bipartisan support
The federal Patients and Communities Act, addressing the opioid crisis, is awaiting the President’s signature. The bill includes provisions supported by the MMS, AMA, and other health care organizations. These include expanded access to SUD prevention and treatment programs including medication, improved treatment and prevention for pregnant women and newborns, funding research and development of non-opioid pain therapies, cracking down on international shipments of illicit drugs such as fentanyl, and lifting restrictions on using telemedicine for SUD treatment.
The law includes provisions introduced by the MA Congressional delegation and supported by the MMS, such as expanding access to medication treatment, loan repayment for substance use professionals’ education, and improved implementation of the partial fill law. The
law also requires that prescribers must e-prescribe controlled substances by 2021 (with some exceptions). The MMS continues to work with our congressional delegation and the AMA to accelerate DEA updates of outdated regulations. Click the button below for a full summary of the law.
Read more
Getting to universal health care
The MMS convened a Conference on Universal Health Care this week, which was well-attended in person and online. Speakers included health economists, a prominent health care policy journalist, a patient advocacy group, and other policy experts. The Conference covered the
relative merits and political viability of various approaches to achieving universal health coverage in the US. Speakers also presented data on the impact of the ACA and other relevant policy and legislation. Video clips from the conference are forthcoming.
Reminders: Stuff you should click on
What can you do about immigrants' challenges to accessing quality health care? (Oct 17)
Learn effective, innovative tools and resources available on state and community levels, as well as non-profit health care and law organizations that you can access to provide better care to immigrants. And much more. This free unique event is on October 17, 2018 at the MMS
headquarters in Waltham. It is hosted by the MMS Committee on Senior Volunteer Physicians; for information and registration, click the button below.
Read more
2019 MMS Annual Awards: Celebrate your colleagues' achievements (and yours)
All physicians likely have at least one colleague who deserves to be nominated for outstanding work or service to the community. Who's yours? The MMS Committee on Recognition Awards are currently seeking nominations for the 2019 Annual Award Program. Click the button below
for more information.
Read more
Become a fully effective leader and colleague (Nov 1–2)
Frustrated about workplace miscommunications? Doubting your ability to help keep your team united? Managing Workplace Conflict: Improving Leadership and Personal Effectiveness is an interactive CME forum for physicians based in real-life medical
workplace scenarios. “Fantastic course — should be required of all physicians. This was a gift!” (recent participant). The program is designed for physicians in clinical practice, and those in administration and leadership. It takes place on November 1–2 at MMS
Headquarters in Waltham. Click the button for information and registration.
Register
Educational programs and events
Live events
Gender and Bias in Medicine – Effect on Physicians, Impact on Patients
Friday, October 19
The Prescription Drug Predicament: Improving Access and Fostering Innovation
15th Annual Public Health Leadership Forum
Friday, October 25
Managing Workplace Conflict: Improving Leadership and Personal Effectiveness
Thursday & Friday, November 1-2
More live CME
Featured online CME
Legal Advisory: Treating Patients with Mental Illness
Legal Advisory: Legal Obligations in Treating Patients with Disabilities
Legal Advisory: Treating Patients with Limited English Proficiency
More online CME
Quote of the week
"Attitudes toward mental health and addiction are finally changing. Stigma and discrimination are no longer acceptable. Our system must catch up."
— Rosalynn Carter, former first lady, and Patrick J. Kennedy, former US representative (Washington Post)
Tweet of the week
Protect Patient Safety
@MAPatientSafety
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.
Why advocates and opponents of Question 1 disagree on costs (MassLive)
The Coalition to Protect Patient Safety, an anti-
Question 1 group funded by hospitals, has estimated the first-year cost of the measure at $1.31 billion and $900 million in subsequent years. The union-funded Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care, which supports the measure, predicts a cost of $35–$47 million — less than 4 percent of
their opponents' forecast. And the state's Executive Office of Administration and Finance says the measure would cost just Massachusetts' four state-run hospitals between $67.8 million and $74.8 million per year.
Mandated nurse ratios could add $949M to annual costs (Worcester Business Journal)
If a statewide ballot question passes in November mandating certain nurse-to-patient ratios, annual costs for hospitals and other facilities would rise by up to
$949 million a year, the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission reported. The commission's report adds a new objective voice to what has been a largely one-side-versus-the-other debate among how medical facilities should staff their nurses to treat patients. Administrations at UMass
Memorial Health Care, Harrington Hospital, and Milford Regional Medical Center are among those opposed to the ballot question. Milford Regional has said its costs could increase by $5 million.
Backers of nurse staffing proposal object to agency's study (WBUR)
The Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care, the lead advocacy group for the ballot question, said the Health Policy Commission had never before "engaged" on a ballot question, nor had it undertaken an analysis of any of the hundreds of health care-related bills that were filed with the
Legislature in the past session. Moreover, the group claims the
cost analysis of Question 1 may have been tainted by private meetings that members of the commission held with the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, an industry group that opposes the ballot initiative.
Wellforce CEO Norm Deschene to retire (Boston Business Journal)
Wellforce CEO Norm Deschene has announced he will retire at the end of the year, four years after helping found the parent health system for Tufts Medical Center. Deschene, who will turn 65 in June, said that he felt it was a good time to leave given the financial strength of the system, recent
executive appointments to hospitals within Wellforce, and the acquisition of hospice and home care company Home Health.
Stabbed, punched, bitten: ER doctors face rising violence (Boston Globe)
The patient leaped off his gurney and punched Shukla, hard, in the jaw. Pain shot down his neck. Shukla, who now works at a hospital in Western Massachusetts, had little time to nurse his wound: Another ambulance arrived and he rushed off to treat a stroke patient. Angry and
distraught patients and family members have scratched, spit at, bitten, hit, and stabbed doctors and nurses working in hospital emergency rooms. One Massachusetts caregiver was so badly cut in an
assault that she required eight hours of life-saving surgery. Nearly everyone has a story.
Mass. med schools teaching more end-of-life care (WBUR)
Last year, all four medical schools in Massachusetts agreed to work together to improve the way they teach students to care for seriously ill patients, especially near the end of life. This fall, the schools are gathering data on what students are currently learning about
end-of-life care, and some are beginning to change the way they teach. Students at UMass Medical School are learning to treat gravely ill patients in the school's simulation lab, examining "patients" — paid actors — and talking to them and their "relatives" about their worsening illnesses.
McLean psychiatric outpost, $2,150 a day, and insurance is not welcome (Globe)
McLean's steady expansion into the realm of
private-pay care, which now accounts for 40 percent of its residential beds and several outpatient programs, exposes a tension in mental health care: Options for the upper middle class and wealthy are growing at a time when many other patients say they can't get their insurers to pay for adequate
treatment. The phenomenon threatens to create a two-tier system "where high-quality care is only accessible to those with enough resources to afford care out of their own pocket,'' said Brian Rosman, policy director at Health Care for All, a Boston-based patient advocacy group.
