NMSA

NEW MEXICO SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS

Annual Business Meeting

April 12, 2008

The Meeting was called to order by Dr. Nivine Doran at 12:15 pm.

MINUTES

The minutes from the April 14, 2007 meeting were approved as read....

Membership Report: there are 233 members: 155 Active of which 131 have paid their dues, 5 affiliate of which 4 have paid their dues, 33 retired (no dues) and 2 AA’s of which 1has paid his dues.

There are 22 new members since the last annual meeting, 21 active and affiliate physicians and one retired.

The balance in the checkbook is $40,629.09 and in the PAC fund the balance is $3,934.12. Income from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008 was $37,725. expenses were $38,113 with a net loss of $388.

Work value – there was a 32% increase in Medicare reimbursements for anesthesiologists which works out to an additional 16% per year. The SGR formula in 2007 was due to start a 10.1% decrease in reimbursements and this was put off and actually received a 5% increase. A priority of ASA this year has been to get parity with other specialties for anesthesiologists.

The current legislative effort involves the Anesthesia Teaching Payment issue which if successful will add $750 million per year to UNM. Dr. Wills urged the full support of the whole NMSA membership for this. 40% of the anesthesia residents in recent years have stayed in New Mexico. The quality of these residents has also increased and 82% have received certification within 5 years.

The SGR issue comes up again before July 1 and Dr. Wills said that hoped changes will receive lots of grass roots support.

Scope of Practice: Truth in Transparency. The CRNA’s in rural New Mexico get paid through Medicare Part A. Also, CRNAs have introduced themselves as doctors. They would like to prevent this from happening.

At the Board meeting it was remarked that the lobbyist expense for his past year was $11,000. Dr. Charsley and Dr. Doran are requesting reimbursement from ASA to pay part of this.

ASA Board Current issues: The new Executive Director is reorganizing the ASA office at a cost of $600,000. The Board is addressing the problem of abuses in the expert witness area. Disciplinary action has taken place in some cases.

Pay for Performance – CMS adds 5% to reimbursements for participation in Pay for Performance. There has been some question as to whether this is worth it. The HOD decided to not actively pursue having ASA members participate at this time

Define Anesthesia Care Team – They are trying to do this but there are numerous problems with supervision issues.

In the state, Workers Compensation has been a problem and there is a real danger of decrease in compensation. There are no increases from Medicaid for anesthesiology. ECT is not covered by Medicaid and UNM is having problems with compliance issues regarding OB anesthesiology. The ASA is coming out with a uniform resident application.

Joyce Phillips said that there is concern at ASA about the resident and fellow certification program especially as relates to pediatric anesthesia. There is no way of tracking or maintaining certification. There have been some problems as ER docs also do pediatric anesthesia. The goal in this is not to exclude anyone but to make sure that those taking care of the sickest and most fragile are fully qualified. She has a paper with talking points which could be distributed to ask members their opinions so John Wills will know how the membership wishes him to vote in the HOD and directors’ meetings.

B. Legal/Lobbyist Report - John Anderson sent a Legislative Summary for this meeting and it is attached to these minutes. With regard to Health Care Reform and the Governor’s health care bill, John Anderson is doubtful that Governor Richardson will be around next year, at least if the Democrats win the presidential election. He has said that he will call a special session but has not yet and the Legislature has told him that they will begin to consider health care reform at next year’s regular session.

New Mexico will face real challenges –New Mexico gets the most federal dollars per capita of any state. We did have a very powerful Congressional delegation and will go back to having four freshman which means a weak delegation, which will be very interesting in terms of federal dollars spent in New Mexico. Diane Denish is a friend of medicine also and will be the next governor if Richardson leaves.

He strongly urged the membership of NMSA to contribute to their state PAC as well as the ASA PAC. He also strongly suggested that NMSA officers and members support their legislators both federal and state and be known to them ahead of time.

There was a bill this session to bring the AA’s under the Medical Board that did not make it to the floor. John would like to see all the allied providers under the Medical Board instead of having all the individual boards. He also would like to find a mechanism to handle scope of practice issues administratively rather than legislatively bit by bit. He would like support for a bill to set up this mechanism which the NM Medical Society will support once again in the next session.

He also wants to see Workers Comp and Medicaid be brought under the Health Care Authority. As far as Workers Comp goes, it has been a revolving door administratively and currently really seems to favor the insurance industry.

B. President Elect – Leslie Garson was nominated and elected for a two year term.

C. Secretary/Treasurer – David Siegel was nominated and elected for a two year term.

D. District Director – John Wills was nominated and re-elected for a three year term.

E. Alternate District Director – Ruth Burstrom was nominated and elected for a three year term.

F. Delegate to the ASA House of Delegates – David Leachman and Penny Lindgren were nominated –David Leachman was elected to a three year term.

G. Alternate Delegates (2) – Cameron Burrup and Maggie Charsley were nominated and elected for a one year term each.