Your Medical Society By Your Side

By Brissa Vela

We all had a vision for 2020. We thought that we would unveil a plan that set the path for our day-to-day operations, however, it all changed in a matter of days. Everything we had planned was changed. The path we thought we could follow took us on a big detour. That is when the Bexar County Medical Society (BCMS) and the Texas Medical Association (TMA) began refocusing our efforts. As we took our journey down this new road, we learned to adapt and find resources that would help our members navigate through the new way to practice medicine.

We, like you, could see that telemedicine and its usage were becoming the means of practicing medicine for many physicians, especially when involving such a serious contagion. As a result, several services were developed to assist the physicians navigate this under-used service, enabling it to emerge for the daily practice of medicine. The services developed for our members include free telemedicine contract review, telemedicine vendor evaluation criteria, assistance creating business service agreements with telemedicine platform vendors using HIPAAcompliant encrypted services, guidance on appointment scheduling and obtaining patient consent, and help with prescription and medication management through telemedicine platforms.

To ensure patients can find our physician members, the BCMS Find a Doctor referral service (available on the Bexar County Medical Society phone app or on the BCMS.org website) continues to provide online information that is updated continuously for the community and for our physician members. We encourage every physician to review their profile and make sure it is always up-to-date. This service allows new and existing BCMS members to provide the following referral information: • Physician primary and secondary specialties • Practice(s) information addresses, phone numbers and website links • Physician education history • Hospital affiliations Insurance types accepted (subject to patient verification) Physician photos

As COVID-19 was emerging, BCMS and TMA could see the need for Practice Viability Resources, including funding sources (SBA and others), liability insurance policy updates, payer, coding and documentation guidance (Medicare, Medicaid and Commercial Plans) and human resources guidance. If you are new to practice or to Texas, we can provide guidelines to open your practice and run your daily practice, financial and clinical operations, etc.

Besides business help, leadership help for physicians during this pandemic has been aweinspiring! Your medical Society has served the medical community in so many ways, spending countless hours giving guidance to the community leaders, not only locally but at the state level as well.

The Student Collaboration Committee has also stepped up for the benefit of all physicians during this pandemic. This group is made up of students from both medical schools (UT Health SA and UIW) who have been heavily involved supporting the BCMS COVID-19 Taskforce, PPE distribution, writing of articles about how the medical schools are adapting, and volunteering to support your medical society’s efforts.

The BCMS Task Force, in combination with medical students, developed public service announcements (PSAs) supporting the “Wear a Mask” campaign; developing the COVID-19 Pediatric Symptom Severity Chart; preparing Parental Guides in English and Spanish; and creating artwork for social media outreach. They also lead a Give Back campaign to benefit the San Antonio Food Bank.

As we continue to work through these challenging times, we will always continue to focus on the needs of our members and their practices.

Brissa Vela is the BCMS Membership Director.