Each clinician can amplify their voice and collaborate on solutions by engaging in organized medicine through County, State, and Federal organizations. You do not have to be a member of the Pennsylvania Medical Society to engage in this process, but if you want to make comments about or be a voting member on adoption of solutions, you need to be enrolled in your County and State Medical Society, or, conversely, ask for the support of a delegate from your County Medical Society to lobby for your hot button issue.
As a physician in the community, if you are enthusiastic about a hot button issue, you can reach out to your County (CCMS) or State (PAMED) Medical Society member colleagues. The process is fairly straightforward. Below is a theoretical attempt at getting collaboration for a hot button issue that you feel passionate about.
Identify your hot button issue in a title-
“Ending prior authorizations of Migraine medications”
“No added hidden fees for covered screening colonoscopies”
“Need for better patient education from public health in proper use of infant and child car seats” etc
Once you have identified and labeled your issue, share it with your County Medical Society executive or board members, and they will run it up the flagpole to see if there is already existing policy with PAMED or the AMA, and provide you with updates of movement around that policy if already adopted and being worked on.
If your hot button issue is not something currently in progress, or if you feel that the current level of attention needs to be increased, then, you can work on putting together an actual resolution for your state organization to cocreate, lobby and provide action to the request for change or improvement assuming it is adopted at the next house of delegates of PAMED in late October.
The next step is to create a list of reasons why this issue is important for instance how it is harmful to patients or practice by stating a series of
“Whereas; Prior authorizations delay needed care”
“Whereas; Insurance benefits for coverage of USPTF screening services should include all fees”
“Whereas; proper infant and child car seat use saves lives”
If you can cite sources or references this is a bonus. If you can ballpark an estimate for the actual cost to implement that is also a bonus if it applies. PAMED staffing can certainly help in this regard.
The final step is to create a resolution.
A resolution is a stand-alone request for discrete action or several related actions from PAMED or the PAMED delegation to the AMA to collaborate in communicating, organizing, structuring, and ultimately problem solving as per the resolution.
You should use the collective knowledge of your County Medical Society's executive, as well as the volunteer board members at CCMS to fine-tune and craft the resolution so that it has the highest likelihood of being adopted at the annual House of Delegates of PAMED to become the work of PAMED in the upcoming year(s).
If you are not a member of your County and State Medical Society, you will have to ask a member who is a delegate to the House of Delegates of PAMED to sponsor your resolution. Our county board will assist. Conversely, if you are a member of your County and State you may also volunteer to attend remotely or in person the annual House of Delegates in late October as a delegate of your County.
CCMS will then assist you with submitting your resolution for review and comment by assigning it to a volunteer PAMED reference committee of 4 or 5 physician peers and administrative support staff at PAMED.
Resolutions proposed are then posted for about 4 weeks to allow comment and discussion on a virtual site for any PAMED members who are engaged, allowing debate about specific resolutions. The smartest person in the room is the collective room, and the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) is a pretty big room.
All comments are then reviewed by the reference committee, and a recommendation to adopt, modify, send to the Board of Directors at PAMED for further study, for action after study, or not adopt will be made. There is no sausage making at the house of delegates. Resolutions stand or fall on their own merits, though wordsmithing sometimes does come into play.
If you and other PAMED members disagree with the recommendation of the reference committee, further debate and final voting can take place at the House of Delegates meeting in late October. Questions? Contact Lynne Stilley, Executive Director, Chester County Medical Society, at 610-389-4222 or Lastilley@gmail.com.
All the best,
Winslow W. Murdoch, M.D.
Officer & Treasurer, Chester County Medical Society
House of Delegates (HOD) Chair
PH: 610-692-4700
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