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FMA
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EMR Florida |
FMA Alliance "Not being able to govern events, I govern myself." - Michel De Montaigne
Accompanied by Mr. Tim Stapleton, Vice President of Public Affairs and Mr. Jeff Scott, Director of the Division of Governmental Affairs, I visited Ana Viamonte Ros, MD, MPH, State Surgeon General of the Florida Department of Health, and some of her key staff on Monday. During this visit, we reviewed our legislative agenda and benefited from her wise counsel. The budget shortfall is not improving and the various departments have already cut much of the fat in the first round. Programs affecting real people are next, and they have no choice but to bring their budget in line with revenues. We are fortunate to have such caring and compassionate public servants working on the health care needs of so many Floridians. They are doing their best to minimize the impact, however, many will bear the brunt of their actions. On Tuesday, I met Mr. Barney T. Bishop lll, President and CEO of Associated Industries of Florida (http://www.aif.com/). We discussed a number of issues--especially the accelerating Access to Care crisis. In the past, a dialogue with the business community hasn't been possible, however, we are committed to improving our communication with them and, where possible, working together. They are fighting a continuing assault by the trial bar looking to reverse recent gains. We are sympathetic, of course, and it is important for all to appreciate that the tort crisis for medicine has not improved. "Three strikes" continues to impede our ability to recruit high risk specialists to Florida and we need to inform our allies and potential allies of this at every opportunity. Mr. Bishop appreciates that a crisis in health care will also be a crisis in Florida's economy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Chair of the FMA's Council on Legislation, Dr. Miguel Machado, along with Mr. Stapleton and Mr. Scott, flew to Tucson, Arizona for an AMA sponsored meeting on state legislative activities. This meeting was attended by the legislative chairs and lobbyists from most of the state medical associations in the country. It provided our legislative team with an opportunity to learn what other states are doing in the legislative arena and allowed them to share strategies to achieve success. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following appeared in last Friday's American Medical Association "eVoice": "Are your medical staff's bylaws up to date? Because the Joint Commission recently updated its standard regarding medical staff bylaws, medical staffs are strongly urged to make sure their bylaws are up to date and aligned with the new standard. When were your medical staff's bylaws last updated? In most states, medical staff bylaws are considered contracts and are legally binding, so it is important that they are well designed and well written. To help, the AMA has published the fourth edition of its "Physician's guide to medical staff organization bylaws," which offers model language that supports self-governance, information on emerging issues in health care, recent trends in medical staff re-engineering, and links and citations to laws and regulations, accreditation body standards, case law and relevant AMA policy. AMA members can view (PDF, 995KB) and download the guide at no charge. Non-AMA members will be able to purchase the guide in the coming weeks." Until next week... |
Be sure to visit the FMA Web site at www.fmaonline.org for the latest news updates.