December 20, 2016          Issue 23          


President's Message
MIPS in Action

The new Medicare Quality Payment Program, which includes the Merit Based Incentive Payment System, or MIPS, has an implementation date of Jan. 1, 2019, but physicians must take action starting in 2017 to avoid payment reductions or have a chance of receiving payment incentives in 2019 of up to 4 percent.





Community Connector
LaTonia Sweet, M.D., Sees Need
for Integration of Behavioral, Physical Health 
  
A native of Viper, Ky., in Perry County, Latonia Sweet, M.D., knows firsthand the many health barriers many people in rural parts of the state, and country, face.
  
"My life expectancy as a woman from Perry County was lower than most everybody in the U.S. in 2012," said Dr. Sweet, a member of the 2016 class of the KMA Community Connector Leadership Program who was recognized earlier this year by Medical News with the Medistar Physician of the Year award.


Leadership Training Deadline Jan. 31

KMA is offering members the chance to enhance their leadership skills and develop their roles and influence in health care policy through the Kentucky Physicians Leadership Institute (KPLI). This premier leadership training program is open to 15 applicants on a competitive basis; the deadline to apply is Jan. 31.


 
Liu Named Medical Director for the Kentucky
Department for Medicaid Services

Gilbert Liu, M.D., former director of the Division of General Pediatrics at the University of Louisville, was recently named Medical Director for the Kentucky Department for Medicaid Services. Liu has taught general pediatrics and his research interests include obesity prevention, environmental health, spatial analysis and improving medical education.
In Case You Missed It

If you regularly share health care news with your patients on Twitter, Facebook or Linkedin, check out @kymedassoc for useful informational graphics and health care updates.
 


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Member News
Lederer Elected President
of American Society of Nephrology

KMA member Eleanor D. Lederer, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Louisville, has been elected president of the American Society of Nephrology for 2017.
                                                        
Wright Elected to The Foundation
for a Healthy Kentucky Board

KMA Vice President R. Brent Wright, M.D., has been elected as treasurer of The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky board of directors.

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