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Chicago Medicine Newsletter NewsltrJuly06.qxp 8/1/2006 1:42 PM Page 1 Newsletter, July 2006, Vol. 109, No. 8 ADVOCACY AND OUTREACH Help wanted: bring CMS voice to grassroots WANT TO BRING ADVOCACY AND ideas to your hospital? To meet with your elected representatives in an informal set- ting? To learn what your Society is doing on your behalf? You can help us bring the CMS message to your facility by serving as a hospital liaison. In this role, you’ll work with our staff to help set up and coordinate CMS- sponsored activities at your hospital. Our advocacy/outreach events include: l Legislative breakfasts with political reps Past events have included House Speaker Barbara Flynn-Currie, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (7th Dist.) Cook County Commission- Geriatric gains at Illinois Masonic er Forrest Claypool, Sen. John Cullerton (6th CMS President Shastri Swaminathan, MD, (second from Dist.), Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (12th Dist.), right) assists in the ribbon cutting as Advocate Illinois Rep. Cynthia Soto (4th Dist.), and Rep. Jeff Masonic Medical Center opens its new 21-bed acute care Schoenberg (9th Dist.). geriatric unit on June 16. Also manning the scissors are Birinder Marwah, MD, (far right) unit medical director, l Quarterly staff meeting hospital visits and Jenna Yerro-Molo, ACGU nurse manager. Our president and staff are available to speak on current issues and challenges and what CMS is doing to address them. Our staff is currently making plans for the 2006-2007 l Doctors’ lounges visits & presentations year. If you would like more information about planning Previous visits have included staff from the events at your facility, call Hilary Westover (312) 329-7324 CMS Insurance Agency who explained the ben- or Casey Becker (312) 329-7329; email hwestover@cms- efits of insurance through our organization. docs.org or [email protected]. July “physicians’ month” on Capitol Hill Senators urge Medicare physician payment increase IN A LETTER TO SENATE LEADERSHIP, 80 senators urged their leaders to ensure Con- gress takes action before its October adjourn- ment to, at a minimum, provide a positive NewsltrJuly06.qxp 8/1/2006 1:42 PM Page 2 SERVING MEMBERS S M C , r e The CMS Board Retreat k c e brainstormed on ways to B y e increase membership, as s a C well as a two-day Midwest s o t Clinical Conference. The o h P board also strategized ways to involve more students and residents in organized medicine. CMS retreat focuses on outreach Charting a new course TRUSTEES AND GUESTS RECENTLY PARTICI- pated in a CMS Board Retreat where they reviewed the Society’s dual mission: to provide both educa- tion and advocacy for Chicago-area physicians. In pledging to revamp these services, leaders added several new directives to your Society’s goal Shastri Swaminathan, MD, CMS president, left, leads of reaching out to physicians. In addition to con- a discussion on the Society’s goals, with Saroja tinuing efforts to take the Society to the physicians Bharati, MD, president-elect, and Hareth M. Raddawi, through hospital visits and legislative breakfasts, MD, vice-president, District 7. CMS leadership also announced: public health topics and technology. The program will l Prior to the November elections, CMS will hold a feature forums for special interest groups that have not candidates’ forum where speakers can give their had a platform in organized medicine. Both the candi- perspectives on health care issues. Local and coun- dates’ forum and the MCC will be open for pharma- ty candidates will be asked to speak individually ceutical as well as non-pharmaceutical sponsorship. rather than in debate format. The audience, to in- lMembership recruitment efforts this fall will target clude doctors, medical students, and interested students and residents through forums and social members of the public, could number up to 500. In events. Current members should assist by en- addition to public health and legislative topics, the couraging hospital/medical school program di- candidates’ forum will host courses on practice man- rectors to join. This is pivotal because students and agement and other topics of multi-specialty interest. young physicians are likely to join organizations in l CMS is also planning a two-day Midwest Clinical which their professors and mentors are members. Conference (MCC) for early spring 2007. Along with CMS trustees will meet again this fall to focus clinical programs, MCC will host new courses target- on making the Society an even more relevant force ing hospitalists and also present the latest on emerging for physicians. Meet Ellen Wuennenberg: gaining grants for CMS CMS IS PLEASED TO INTRODUCE of project management-related issues; she also project coordinator Ellen Wuen- prepared budget and schedule status perfor- nenberg. Ms. Wuennenberg is mance measures for state committees. Addition- responsible for coordinating the ally, Ms. Wuennenberg has experience working emergency and public health pre- for numerous nonprofit organizations in Wiscon- paredness grant from the Chicago sin, including the Wisconsin Community Action Department of Public Health, Program Association. She has three years’ experi- including the Avian Influenza ence in catering and coordinating special events. Wuennenberg and the Potential for a Pandemic Ms. Wuennenberg has a master’s degree in program. She is also working on public affairs with a concentration in public man- the Chicago Regional Patient Simulator Center agement and social policy from the Robert M. La project and is conducting research to obtain grants Follette School of Public Affairs at the University supporting existing and new CMS programs. of Wisconsin—Madison. She earned her bachelor’s Prior to joining CMS, Ms. Wuennenberg was a degree in sociology from UW. Ms. Wuennenberg project assistant for the Wisconsin Department of is originally from Westby, Wisconsin, where she Administration, working on research and analysis was a competitive gymnast and coach. NewsltrJuly06.qxp 8/1/2006 1:42 PM Page 3 Don’t Miss Out on the Fun!!! Over $3,000 in Prizes!!!! Chicago Medical Society In Conjunction with the DuPage County Medical Society Hosts its... 8th annual GGOOLLFF Ruffled FeathersO Goulf tCilubng 1Pete Dye Drive Lemont, IL 60439 Wednesday September 13, 2006 *Non-members Welcome* Registration Fees: $100 for Members $125 Non-Member A portion of the proceeds to be donated to the creation of a Regional Patient Safety Simulator Noon: Registration & Lunch 1:00 p.m.: Golf, Shot Gun Start, Scramble Format After Golf: Cocktails and Awards Call CMS to register today!!! Phone: 312- 329-7332 Or Register Online: www.cmsdocs.org NewsltrJuly06.qxp 8/1/2006 1:42 PM Page 4 CMS CHAMPIONS ANTI-SMOKING LAWS Secondhand smoke report should be a wake-up call THE U.S. SURGEON GENERAL RECENTLY ny to the City Council in favor of strengthening issued a report that concludes there is no risk-free Chicago’s Clean Indoor Air Ordinance. CMS is a level of exposure to secondhand smoke. The re- member of the coalition that championed Chica- port, “The Health Consequences of Involuntary go’s new smoking ban and the more stringent Exposure to Tobacco Smoke,” finds that nonsmok- ban in suburban Cook County. We continue to ers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or encourage doctors to take the lead on public work increase their risk of developing heart dis- health issues like smoking, by encouraging com- ease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to munity leaders to support health care legisla- 30 percent. tion. Over the years, CMS has adopted policy sup- More than 20 Illinois cities have some type of porting the elimination of all smoking in public smoking ban. Most have been approved since a places and workplaces at the state and local levels. 2005 state law gave communities the authority to More recently your Society provided testimo- pass tougher anti-smoking laws. PHYSICIANS’ MONTH ON CAPITOL HILL (continued from first page) update in Medicare physician payments for 2007. representatives about this issue. Tell them: The letter specifically cited the voices of AMA l To take action before the October adjournment members who completed this year’s AMA Mem- to stop the mandated five percent cut and increase ber Connect Survey. Forty-five percent of the Medicare physician payments by 2.8 percent, as physicians who took the survey said that next recommended by the Medicare Payment Advisory year’s Medicare cut will force them to either de- Commission. crease or stop seeing new Medicare patients. Many l To replace Medicare’s flawed payment formula physicians also indicated they will be forced to with one that reflects increases in physician costs. defer the purchase of information technology, dis- l If Congress doesn’t act, the current system will continue rural outreach services and decrease the reduce patients’ access to care. number of new TRICARE patients they treat. (TRI- During the summer, lawmakers are focusing on CARE is the health insurance program for military other key issues affecting American medicine, such personnel and their families. Its payment rates are as “pay-for-reporting” and “pay-for-performance” tied to Medicare’s.) Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and initiatives, varied approaches for reforming the Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., were instrumental in medical liability system and payment cuts for imag- encouraging their Senate colleagues to sign the ing services that were required under the Deficit letter and commit to taking action on this issue. Reduction Act. As of press time, the Senate Judicia- The AMA is encouraging all physicians and ry Committee was planning to hold a hearing on medical students to contact their U.S. senators and health insurance market concentration.. NEWS FOR CHICAGO PHYSICIANS CHICAGO MEDICAL SOCIETY OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY Chicago Medicine (ISSN 0009-3637) is Shastri Swaminathan, MD published monthly with one addi- President tional issue published each winter, Saroja Bharati, MD spring, summer and fall for $20 per President-elect year for members; $30 per year for William N.
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