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Jan. 20, 2017
Greetings!
Today your board of directors met and thoroughly discussed several topics, and we look forward to your opinion and insights on these issues. As you know, our re-engineered governance process emphasizes direct, interactive communication between CMS members like you and the board of directors. I welcome any comments you’d like to send to me and I will personally respond.
- Federal health care reform: Federal health care reform and what it means for Colorado physicians and the patients they serve was a major topic, featuring a presentation by Amy Downs, a senior policy director at the Colorado Health Institute (and spouse of a physician). Ms. Downs provided a deep-dive on several reform scenarios that Congress and the Trump administration might follow. The policy objectives of the congressional leadership are a moving target, and will require careful monitoring and thoughtful, even forceful, engagement. The board approved a project plan on federal reform with the goal of ensuring that all Coloradans have coverage and access to quality, affordable health care. One key takeaway from this part of the meeting was the need to further ramp up our communications with the Colorado congressional delegation. This is yet another way for you to engage and participate in our efforts. You can review Ms. Downs’ presentation here and then share your thoughts with me by replying to this email. I will soon be asking you to provide input through an all-member survey on health care reform that we are actively developing. Please complete the survey as your input will be critical to help guide our advocacy work on your behalf with our congressional delegation and other stakeholders.
- Central Line policy proposals: Our nationally unique grassroots policy engagement tool went live in November on two emergent topics – any willing provider and lay midwifery scope of practice. The response was tremendous! If you were one of the almost 700 physicians from across the state who responded, thank you. The board carefully considered that input when it took action on these proposals during the meeting. In keeping with the purpose of Central Line to enable you to help set Colorado Medical Society policy, you will soon get a notification from your board member via Central Line about those two issues. About 30 seconds is all it will take for you to tell us if the board “got it right” or not on these proposals. Please participate, and if you have not yet designated your Central Line “interest area,” then click here to sign in and join the conversation on issues important to you.
On a separate note, as changes in health care accelerate, it’s more important than ever to have well-trained and motivated physician leaders. That is why we have launched the Physician Leadership Skills Series with our first program scheduled for Feb. 11. Go to
www.cms.org/events/leadership-skills
to learn more and to register.
Thank you very much for taking time to read this report and for sending me your comments.
With best regards,
Katie Lozano, MD, FACR, President
Colorado Medical Society
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