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April 21, 2008

Good Morning,

It is hard to believe, but there are only 10 working days until the end of the 2008 Florida Legislative Session. Either by design or chance, the best legislation, including our Managed Care Bill, has been saved until last. For the next 10 days and beyond, the FMA will continue its work on your behalf, shepherding issues through the process, while keeping a close eye out for mischief. Additionally, we will continue to make sure that the regulatory arena is closely monitored. I once again urge you to continue to contact your State Representatives and Senators. It is not too late to remind them of the issues that are important to you and the physicians of Florida. Click HERE to review the FMA's 2008 legislative priorities.

On Thursday, the Florida Medical Association joined the Florida Hospital Association, the Florida Nurses Association, the Florida Health Care Association and others in endorsing the Governor's plan to address the state's uninsured population. The plan, called "Cover Florida," is designed to address the problem of the uninsured — one of the most important public policy and public health issues facing our state. It is estimated there are approximately 3.8 million Floridians who are, for a variety of reasons, currently without health insurance. We hope that this plan will improve access to care and create a medical home for our state's most under served citizens.

"Cover Florida" is built upon developing a medical home in a physician's office. All agree that the hospital emergency room is not the best or most efficient place to receive primary care. We are pleased that Governor Crist has taken the lead on this critical issue. "Cover Florida" is also a market-based approach that includes a robust package of preventive, primary and urgent care benefits. The Governor's plan is a good first step in improving access to health care for all Floridians. You can read more about the Governor's plan by clicking HERE.

On a different note, I was in Raleigh, North Carolina last week for a meeting of the Physician's Foundation for Health Systems Excellence. There, we heard a presentation from one of the executives at Sermo. If you have not heard of it yet, it is worth looking into. Sermo, Latin for conversation, is an online community for physicians licensed to practice in the United States. Created to enable physicians to exchange observations and knowledge in real time, Sermo harnesses the collective knowledge of physicians to identify trends and provide insight into their observations and experiences about medications, treatments, medical devices and protocols.

Sermo was launched in 2006 and now has more than 60,000 physician members using the site to collaborate, share ideas and challenge opinions. Physicians can join the site for free and remain completely anonymous in their postings. The site authenticates and credentials physicians in real time and uses technology that revalidates them each time they sign in to ensure that only licensed physicians can participate as members. Once members join they can post questions, make comments, search information using keywords, submit images and more. The exchanges are instantaneous and allow a form of collaboration unlike any other. Sermo makes money by offering its insights to paying clients in the pharmaceutical and financial industries as well regulatory bodies, specialty societies and more.

In 2007, the American Medical Association partnered with Sermo. Today, the AMA President and leadership regularly interact on Sermo to gain input on a wide range of topics including policy and practice issues. To learn more about Sermo or to take a tour, click HERE. Currently, the FMA is exploring proposals to partner with physicians throughout Florida to create a site allowing real time communication and dialogue on local and state issues. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please contact Mrs. Lynne Takacs, FMA Director of Communications HERE.

And last, "The Health Insurance Mafia" was the title of an article in last Monday's Wall Street Journal. It is an interesting read and worth your time. To read it, click HERE. As always, your comments are welcome.