Message from MSV president: The right track
3 February 2012
Dear colleagues,
I didn’t think that by day 24 of this year’s 60 day General Assembly session that we would have seen such favorable action on the Medical Society’s top legislative priorities. Yesterday the Senate Education and Health Committee unanimously passed the definition of surgery bill, SB 543, without one question or comment; the full Senate will vote on the bill early next week. The House has already passed the identical HB 266 with a 98-0 vote. Initial concerns from opponents of the bill were resolved through the efforts of the bill patron, Del. Chris Peace and his colleagues, Del. Roxann Robinson, who is an optometrist, and
Del. Scott Garrett, M.D., a surgeon.
Our bill to promote a team approach to patient-centered care, HB 346, has passed the House and is awaiting Senate action. This bill, which ensures that physicians remain the leader and manager of a health care team that includes nurse practitioners, builds upon the effective collaborative relationships physicians already have with their NPs, but does not give NPs independent practice. The MSV lobbying team expects this bill will be treated favorably in the Senate.
We have turned our attention to Medicaid. Since Gov. Bob McDonnell did not cut Medicaid reimbursement rates for physicians in his proposed budget, we want to make sure legislators maintain that posture when they prepare their versions of the budget. The governor's budget did have cuts to the free clinics and other safety net providers. We know the free clinics and the local health clinics are a vital resource for uninsured Virginians. This week I sent a letter to the senators on the Finance Committee to ask them to resist the temptation to take dollars from physician reimbursement to balance the budget and urge them to restore funding for the safety net providers.
Click here to read the letter.
A lot can happen in the remaining 36 days, but I’m confident we’re on the right track.
Regards,
Hugh M. Bryan III, M.D.
President