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Want to learn more about ways you can support the profession and protect patients? Stop by the Advocacy Booth at ANESTHESIOLOGY 2022, where you can complete your advocacy checklist by submitting a comment about Safe VA Care, downloading the new advocacy app and more! ASA Grassroots Network
3 ways to advocate for the specialty:
1. Join the ASA Grassroots Network
2. Complete the advocacy modules
3. Follow ASA Grassroots Network on Twitter and Facebook
Read:
http://ow.ly/ZHgb50L0rZA
Congratulations to Dr. Kristin Ondecko Ligda of Mars, PA, winner of our photo contest! Dr. Ligda posted the winning photo on Instagram and Facebook, saying:
"We were advocating for several issues.
1. A priority for our nation’s medical trainees is the Resident Education Deferred Interest Act. This act needs to be passed to allow interest-free deferral of student loans during residency training.
2. The No Surprises Act requires Congressional oversight as it’s led to a biased system that favors insurance companies.
3. Medicare payment for physician services is broken. Anesthesia services are reimbursed $.30 to the dollar of commercial services whereas other physician services are reimbursed $.80 to the dollar.
4. Safe physician-led healthcare for our nation’s veterans is a priority the veterans deserve.
So glad my mom got to join me in DC! What a great !"
We're glad, too. This is what advocacy looks like!
ASA Grassroots Network
It is clear that CMS and its office bearers seem to have little idea what surgical care is all about. One mistake or lack of timely intervention and the patient could be dead. There is a reason a why specialist anesthesiologist physician whose training spans over close to 12 to 15 years and costs close to a million dollars is delegated with the primary responsibility of surgical care of patients. The nurse is trained to work under the supervision of an anesthesiologist who evaluates a patient, understands the associated anesthetic and surgical risk and above all proposes a plan that either he/she or one of his or her designee executes . Remember 100% of the rescues in the operating rooms are performed by physician anesthesiologist in united states. And 100% of the sickest patients undergoing high risk procedures are performed by Physician anesthesiologists. They catch the problems before, during and after surgery. Todays patients coming to ASE are sicker, older, have multiple co-morbid conditions that only a seasoned physician anesthesiologist can evaluate and treat. Almost 100% of the medicare patients that CMS is responsible for will be placed in great peril, and by the time data becomes available a number of patients would have suffered serious damage or death due to this policy change. And frankly, I can't understand one setting where, why sickest of the sick should not get the benefit of a Physician Anesthesiologist. It clearly appears to be about money or a clear attempt to discriminate against the under privileged patients who are frail, sicker and poor and live in rural or underserved areas. This does little to improve access, however, it surely creates a double standard, a double whammy, because with this ruling and similar rulings in the past sicker, poorer, rural and above all medicare beneficiaries ( over 67 years, the sickest population) now will be offered cheap and substandard care.
As a physician anesthesiologist, I am deeply concerned that in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule, CMS is proposing to allow nurse anesthetists to perform the preoperative assessment of anesthetic risk and presurgical evaluation in an ASC setting. This is a deeply troubling proposal that will have a negative impact on patient safety.
I oppose this proposed change because it would jeopardize the safety of patients. Physicians have the medical background necessary to assess the patient’s underlying condition in an objective, evidence-based and patient-centric way. As a physician anesthesiologist, I have the necessary knowledge and skills to assess the patient with respect to anesthetic risk, and also to assess whether each patient’s preoperative management has been optimized prior to undergoing surgery. Nurse anesthetists do not have the same clinical background or depth of training in clinical issues. Nurse anesthetist training is limited to anesthesia care delivery, not risk assessment, diagnosis or medical decision making outside the scope of an anesthetic.
Thank you,
Dr. Govind Rajan M.B.,B.S., FAACD, FASA
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, legislation to address the opioid crisis, which includes provisions supported by ASA, ASA Grassroots Network, to advance opioid reducing initiatives in the surgical setting.
http://ht.ly/X38Y30m3kY1
'Much of the buzz had to with the repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Medicare payment formula' and proposed changes to the VHA Nursing Handbook.
- with American Society of Anesthesiologists ASA Grassroots Network
We at the California Society of Anesthesiologists strongly believe in and advocate for -centered, -led care. See our strength in numbers at the !
- with The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA)/ASA Grassroots Network
Our fearless leaders in Washington DC for The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA)/ASA Grassroots Network 2015 Legislative Conference advocating on your behalf, California !
Beginning this year our entire PGY1 class was given the opportunity to attend the ASA national meeting in New Orleans. Here Drs. Kaarin Michaelsen, Dan Mandell, Ezeldeen Abuelkasem and Dan Sandusky pose with their ASA Grassroots Network t-shirts for continued involvement in patient safety advocacy.
MOC Deadline Looms Anew, as Resistance Mushrooms
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/824164
April 30 is the last day physicians can register for the controversial maintenance of certification. In the meantime, Over 15000 physicians have signed a cardiologist-led petition protesting the new requirements.
Dr Wes exposes the income rip-off of boards:
When We Reward Regulators More Than Doctors
See:
http://drwes.blogspot.com/
Here is a chart Wes made of the top 10 board members' annual income compared to the same subspecialty physician salaries in 2011 as reported by Medscape:
Join me at
http://paulmdphd.blogspot.com/ for details!