MINUTES
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
July 22, 1999
The Spokane County Medical Society Executive
Committee met at Deaconess Health Education Center in room #263 on July 22,
1999, at 7:00 a.m. Those present
were: Drs.: Allerding, Fuhs, Harper,
Holbrook, Peterson, and Trytko. Jan
Monaco and Karen Hagensen were staff.
Physician Assistant Dues: Karen reviewed a letter from Dan Darrell, PA, Chairman of the
Inland Empire Region I & Board Chairman of Washington Academy of
Physician’s Assistants, who is requesting a reduction in SCMS dues from $50.00
to $25.00 for Physician Assistant members.
Additionally, Karen asked the Executive Committee for their
recommendation on whether PA membership should be unified with the WSMA. It was decided that SCMS would reduce the fee
to $25 and waive the $100 credentials fee for the current WSMA PA members. SCMS will send a letter Dan Darrel and to
all WSMA PA members informing them of the Executive Committee’s decision.
Board Evaluation: Jan
distributed a copy of a board self-evaluation.
She asked the Executive Committee to review the document and get back to
her with any changes as soon as possible.
The changes will be reviewed at the next Executive Committee meeting and
sent out to all Board members for completion by the October Board meeting.
Internal Controls:
Karen presented the Executive Committee with four recommendations from
the Accountant’s audit. She and Jan
have developed policy and procedures to ensure compliance with these
recommendations.
Building Committee Members & Agenda: Jan clarified with the Executive Committee the Building Committee’s structure and the
preliminary agenda.
·
Structure: Past President, Vice
President, Phil Werschler, MD, Banker, Commercial Realtor, and Member-at-Large.
·
Agenda: Location, Renters, Downpayment,
Co-ownership, Cost of Moving, Comparison with Current Costs, and Other.
Fee Schedule Issues: Dr. Trytko suggested that we need to wait approximately three
months to make a decision regarding conducting a fee survey. There are several factors which might
influence our decision. It was
suggested that the WSMA may elect to do this state-wide during the upcoming House
of Delegates.
WSMA Resolution Review: Jan reviewed several changes on the 15 resolutions that have been
submitted by various Board members. The
Executive Committee was in occurrence with many of the changes. The Executive Committee made a few
alterations. These will now be
forwarded to the WSMA for inclusion in the House of Delegates book. A copy of the amended resolutions will be
e-mailed to everyone. Dr. Fuhs asked
that the resolutions be summarized in our next newsletter.
SCMS Dues Linkage to WSMA Dues: A copy of Dr. Sam Jospeh’s letter to Dr. Fuhs regarding WSMA/SCMS
unification was distributed. It was
decided that Dr. Fuhs will write a letter to Dr. Joseph outlining the Executive
Committee’s discussion which was: the Executive Committee is sympathetic to the
issue, the Executive Committee’s survey demonstrated that money was more the
issue than unification, the benefits of both organizations out-weigh the
disadvantages of unification, the vast majority of physicians still want to
belong to both organizations, and finally, the Executive Committee does not
recommend that we take this issue any further.
OIC Contract Proposals Public Hearing: Dr. Trytko advised that the Office of the Insurance Commissioner
is holding a public meeting in Spokane to hear testimony on two issues: one
being rules regarding clean claims, the other involves rules around dispute
resolution. It was determined that SCMS
will send an all member fax asking everyone to write a letter for the record in
support of these issues.
MSC - AMA Private Sector Advocacy: Dr. Trytko advised he is working with the AMA’s Private Sector
Advocacy group in regards to monopsony behavior by insurers.
Idaho Medicaid & Spokane Physicians: Dr. Trytko advised that he would like to confer with Andy Dolan
regarding whether it is possible for physicians to privately contract with out
of state insurers for federal patients.
As this issue also effects hospitals, Dr. Allerding will bring this
issue to the INHS Board.
Network Adequacy: It
now appears that there are network adequacy issues locally that need to be
addressed. Dr. Fuhs will write his next
article on this issue. He will also
contact the Journal Of Business. It was
also suggested that a letter be developed informing patients on this issue that
physicians could distribute.
Letter from Holy Family: Tom Allerding, MD, distributed a letter from the Medical Director
at Holy Family Hospital regarding the Spokesman-Review’s medical web site. Discussion occurred regarding this issue and
it was determined that Dr. Fuhs will write a letter back to Dr. Bloom explaining
why SCMS did not participate in this project.
Additionally, Jan mentioned that the process of bringing up our web site
has been slowed due to the question of moving data around on the network and
HTML conversion. It appears that we
need to update all computers to Office 2000.
The Executive Committee urged the completion of this project and
authorized the purchase of the necessary updated software.
There being no further business, the meeting
adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas J. Allerding, M.D.
Chair, Executive Committee
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7-22-99 minutes