FEBRUARY EDITION, VOLUME 2019, NO. 2
A MESSAGE FROM YOUR 2019 CAPITAL MEDICAL SOCIETY PRESIDENT By Maribel U. Lockwood, M.D., CMS President Dear CMS members: I am honored and humbled to be the 2019 President of the Capital Medical Society. Many things come to mind for projects and expectations for this coming tenure. One thing is paramount: we are a family, and we are physicians who started this long road because we loved what we do. We love the ability to heal, to relieve pain, to maintain health. Few in our society are capable of or willing to do this work. We have chosen the long road, the long hours, the long days and nights, the hard work and continue to make daily sacrifices to fulfill our oath. We must remember our purpose. We are currently facing many challenges that did not exist a decade ago. Our health care system punishes the physician with more administrative work taking time that should be dedicated to our patients. “Quality measures” are now part of our practice that do not ensure quality but ensure time away from patients, time away from family, time away to deserved rest after a hectic day. Consequently, it is no surprise we are dealing with physician burnout in alarming numbers. One of the ways our system is dealing with this is to attempt replacing well-trained physicians with lesstrained staff to fix the shortage of physicians available to patients. Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and now pharmacists, colleagues who should be allies are competing directly with physicians. The media does not help, portraying us as greedy, heartless and unethical. Most of us have had the patient who comes with new information or worse, avoids coming to us because they trust the TV celebrities and essential oil purveyors. Do any of you think we are delivering better health care?
This is when we as a group of organized medicine have to say enough is enough. Our organization is powerful if we are united and cohesive. It will give us a strong voice in the Legislature. We cannot sit by on the sidelines and let things happen. We need to arm ourselves with legislative understanding so we can have effective communication with our politicians. We need good contacts. Do you know that physician compensation accounted for 8% of total healthcare costs in the US in 2011? It was the second lowest in developed western countries. Even if we worked for free, we will still have serious healthcare problems. There are a number of legislative issues that the FMA is exploring, that, by far, make our healthcare costs exorbitant, such as the Safe Harbor Law, that relates to the middleman for the pharmaceutical industry and the “pay for play” allowed making drugs so expensive, and the ACA and other federal regulations that require additional administrative staff to comply with and are a compliance burden. Perhaps, we should demand members of Congress adhere to ACA as well, and see, if then, it will be preserved. Other issues impacting the practice of medicine are EMRs and MACRA with payment adjustment to the physicians — who are responsible for 8% of healthcare cost — with no proof that it will either save Medicare money or improve value to patients. These are important issues that come to mind. Life is short, and we want for our patients and for ourselves to live it fully. Support each other. Let’s aim for a better future in medicine. It’s not fulfilling to work so many hours when half of the day is used clicking forms in the computer. This is not why we chose to be physicians. Who better for this task than the ones who are in the trenches? As our oath says, “I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures that are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.” Our profession, as we know it, is in danger of extinction. Let’s bring back the common sense.
CAPITAL MEDICAL SOCIETY 2019 MEETINGS CALENDAR March 28, 2019 Celebration Awards Dinner 6:30 pm FSU University Center Club
April 16, 2019 CMS Membership & CME Meeting 6:00 pm Maguire Center for Lifelong Learning at Westminster Oaks
April 25, 2019 Connect the Docs Happy Hour sponsored by Capital City Bank 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm The Wine House on Market Street (1355 Market Street, A1) CONTINUED ON PAGE 6