NYS Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Inc. Find My Elected Representatives Posted August 2, 2010 Last Friday Governor Paterson signed into law a bill that the NYS Society of Orthopaedic Surgeons, along with our colleagues in many specialty organizations and the Medical Society of the State of NY, have been pushing for years. Assembly Bill 11116/Senate Bill 7845 extends No Fault insurance coverage to medical services rendered by healthcare providers to intoxicated drivers injured in motor vehicle accidents. The bill was formally adopted as Chapter 303 of the Laws of 2010. The effective date for the new law is 180 after it is signed by the Governor, which is January 26, 2011. Passage of this legislation corrects a long-standing inequity under NY's No Fault insurance law which penalized doctors if the injured driver was drunk. Once the effective date passes, orthopaedic surgeons can expect to be paid for the critical care that they provide to intoxicated drivers injured in motor vehicle accidents. The bill was sponsored by NYS Assemblyman Dinowitz (Bronx) and NYS Senator Breslin (Albany). In their memo in support of the legislation, the sponsors state "It is grossly unfair to permit health care institutions and professionals to provide lifesaving care, and then provide no compensation. Health care providers offer the life-saving services that are needed when a person is in a motor vehicle accident. In addition, there is no evidence that current No-fault standards deter drunk driving; they simply penalize health care providers for the irresponsible and dangerous behavior of others. This bill would correct the gross inequity by providing for No-fault medical reimbursement for these dedicated professionals and institutions when they provide care pursuant toto state and federal guidelines. Securing passage of this bill is an example of what NY's orthopaedic surgeons can achieve when we engage in the political process. Posted July 13, 2010 The June/July NYSSOS Newsletter is available Read Newsletter July 2010 Update from Edward Tanner, MD, President The NYS Legislature was slated to conclude its regular business on June 21st. However, without a 2010-2011 budget in place, the Legislature technically remains in session. This year the whole health delivery system in NY is under attack. Many proposals aimed at eroding the physician-patient relationship were introduced and acted upon. Allied health professionals saw their scopes of practice slated for expansion and rose to support all of these initiatives. The proposals that were introduced and received a lot of attention included: * Proposal to permit podiatrists to operate all of the way up the level of the knee; *Proposal to allow midwives to practice independent of a collaborative relationship with a physician; *Proposal to allow nurse practitioners to practice independently; *Proposal to license and regulate naturopathic doctors; *Proposal to allow optometrists to prescribe oral medications to their patients; and * Proposal to allow dentists to perform oral and maxillofacial surgery. While each of these bills have received a great deal of attention by legislative leaders and have been the subject of countless hours of meetings by representatives of organized medicine, the only one so far that has passed by both the NYS Assembly and Senate is midwife bill. However, we must all be on notice that the fact that these issues received a great deal of attention this year means that many of them will ultimately be passed into law. These changes should also be viewed in light of the language that was included in the Federal Health Care Reform bill adopted earlier this year by Congress which states in Section 2706 of the law that "[a] group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall not discriminate with respect to participation under the plan or coverage against any health care provider who is acting within the scope of that provider's license or certification under state law." It is important to note that the language "any health care provider" opens the door to both physicians and allied health care providers to provide health care services to the estimated 30 million people who are currently uninsured and expected to move into insured status over the next two years. The push by allied health professionals to expand their scope of practice as much as possible now in order to be the primary health care provider to millions of newly insured Americans is tremendous. NYSSOS has been working very closely with the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) and the New York Coalition of Specialty Care Physicians to oppose the changes that would expand the scope of practice for thousands of practitioners. Clearly, New Yorkers would no longer receive the same level of high-quality medical care that they expect. While allied health professionals are an extremely important part of the health care delivery system, they are not a substitute for physicians. There is no question that some diseases will linger undiagnosed or unidentified and will move to advanced stages with fewer available treatment options and lower quality-of-life for many people. All of the physician professional organizations raised the dangers inherent in a healthcare system that is not controlled by physicians with Members of the Legislature every day through meetings, videos, letters, literature and expert testimony at public hearing. Many doctors have taken countless hours out of their practices to travel to Albany to deliver their message personally as well. The task for NYSSOS and other organizations is to coordinate our message and to keep beating the drum so we can protect the current healthcare system. The task before us is not easy. NYSSOS calls on all of the orthopaedic surgeons in New York who have not joined the Society to take a close look at what is happening in New York and to make an affirmative decision to support your profession by joining the Society today. The battle before us will be a lot easier to weather with your support, and we may not be able to head off the storm without it. Legislation Authorizing No-Fault Insurance Payments to Physicians Treating Intoxicated Motorists Injured in Motor Vehicle Accidents Passes Both the NYS Senate and Assembly in June 2010. Approval by Governor Paterson is pending Orthopaedic Surgeons treat many motor vehicle accident patients throughout the year. On-call hospital requirements, as well as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Law (EMTALA) require physicians who are working in Emergency Departments to treat all patients. Orthopaedic Surgeons are part of the treatment team for musculoskeletal and bone injuries. Orthopaedic Surgeons are proud of their work on behalf of injured patients and indeed this is the type of care they have been trained to perform. Injuries sustained as a result of such accidents are very serious and often life threatening. A little-noticed provision in New York State, however, has created a loophole in the New York State No-Fault law which allows insurers to deny medical care coverage to people who are injured as a result of driving while intoxicated. This standard for reimbursement does not penalize the drunk driver; it penalizes the physician who renders care in emergencies without regard for payment. Assembly Bill 11116/Senate Bill 7845 will correct this problem and NYSSOS strongly supports this legislation. NYSSOS is grateful to NYS Assemblyman Dinowitz and NYS Senator Breslin for sponsoring this bill and sheparding its passage. NYSSOS Annual Albany Lobby Day a Huge Success! NYSSOS held its Annual Lobby Day on May 11th. This was the first year that a coalition of physicians joined together as The NY Coalition of Specialty Care Physicians and lobbied with other physician groups including ophthalmologists, surgeons, obstetricians and gynecologists, radiologists, psychiatrists, otolaryngologists, physical medicine & rehabilitation physician, plastic surgeons and the Medical Society of the State of NY. The NY Coalition of Specialty Care Physicians is a partnership of surgical and medical organizations committed to ensuring the highest standards of care for patients. The Coalition maintains that non-physician providers have and will continue to play an important role in the health care continuum. However, the medical profession and our patients have been progressively confronted by an increasingly aggressive posture to expand the statutory authority of allied health care providers in areas of testing, treatments and procedures, inconsistent with their education, training and lack of hands-on experience. The Coalition representatives met together for a joint session to brief one another on the scope of practice issues that are important to each of our societies. Thereafter we broke up into small groups for individual meetings with legislators. Each group had a physician from each participating organization. The result was that over 150 meetings were conducted and that at each of these meetings, NYSSOS priority issues were discussed and included: • Support for Physician Collective Bargaining (S.5204(Breslin)/A.4301(Canestrari)) • Oppose imposition of a tax on radiological services and procedures performed in private ambulatory surgery in the NYS Executive Budget • Oppose the Expansion of the Scope of Practice of Podiatry (S.2992(Klein)/A.2518(Pretlow)) • Support No-Fault Insurance Reimbursement to Physicians Treating Intoxicated Drivers Injured in Motor Vehicle Accidents (S.3554(Breslin)/A.6843(Dinowitz)) • Support Medical Liability Reform (S.6799(Hannon)/A.6184(Schimminger)) Other issues that NYSSOS cross-endorsed and lobbied for on behalf of the Coalition included: • Oppose Changing the Optometry Scope of Practice to include allowing prescription of a range of potent oral medications such as analgesics (including narcotics), antivirals, antibiotics and antiglaucoma agents (S.2667(Valesky)/A.3718 (Paulin)) • Oppose Licensing naturopaths and authorizing them to independently prescribe, administer, diagnose (S.1930(LaValle)/A.1370 (Hoyt)) • Oppose expanding the scope of practice of dentistry to authorize dentists to perform any procedure in the oral and maxillofacial area regardless of its relation to the oral cavity (S.2937(Klein)/A.4656 (Morelle)) • Oppose Eliminating the Requirement that Midwifes have a Written Collaborative Practice Agreement with an Obstetrician-Gynecologists (S.5007(Duane)/A.8117(Gottfried)) • Oppose Expanding the Corporate Practice of Multiple Professions (S.7484(Huntley)?A.8897(Pretlow) • Support Allowing Physicians to Dispense Hearing Aids for a Profit (S.7670(Schneiderman)/A.10056 (Dinowitz) NYSSOS is grateful to the following orthopaedic surgeons for taking the time to travel to Albany for this important event: Judy Baumhauer, MD; Joseph Bosco, MD; Timothy Clader, MD; Russell Crider, MD; John DiPreta, MD; Noah Finkel, MD; A. Philip Fontanetta, MD; Barry Gloger, MD; David Hootnick, MD; Richard Katz, MD; Barry Jraushaar, MD; Jeffrey Lozman, MD; Michael L. Parks, MD; John Reilly, MD; James Slough, MD; James Striker, MD; Edward Tanner, MD; Edward Toriello, MD; William Walsh, MD and Steven Weinfeld, MD.