Message from the VOS President
What VOS is Accomplishing
By John Mann, MD
President, Virginia Orthopaedic Society
Dear Virginia Orthopaedic Society Members,
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John Mann, MD VOS President |
With the unsettling national government shutdown and uncertainty of the SGR fix, meaningful use, ICD-10, maintenance of certification, it is difficult to be optimistic about where we, as orthopaedic providers, are headed in the near future. I would like to help us refocus on what can be accomplished by our state specialty society working together with other groups such as the Medical Society of Virginia (MSV). Last year under the leadership of Past President Dr. Jonathan Isaacs, and with the great assistance of VOS lobbyists Cal Whitehead and Ralston King, we were able to hold off a Medicare-based workers' compensation fee schedule. Virginia workers' compensation system is already operating at the fourth lowest premium cost of any state in the country. The MSV, VOS, hospitals and other allies successfully lobbied our state representatives' last legislative session to try to uphold the quality of orthopaedic care for our Virginia workers while cutting costs in several quite meaningful ways for the workers' compensation system. Last year, the Virginia General Assembly session closed with no alteration of the workers' compensation fee schedule. Unfortunately, because no consensus has evolved, we will likely need to address this issue again this year in the 2014 General Assembly.
We are very proud to have Dr. Wilford Gibson as the President of the Board of Councilors of the AAOS. He has worked diligently to try to represent our views at the national level. He has kept us informed on ways to be proactive with regards to the SGR fix. As a state society, we feel that the possible 30% reduction in Medicare physician reimbursement for total joint replacement will be detrimental to our patients as they seek access to care for degenerative arthritis. The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) and the AAOS leadership have joined forces to reach out to our national representatives. At this point, I urge all of you to contact your state representatives to prevent a major decrease in Medicare compensation for total joint replacement.
The Virginia Orthopaedic Society is also very proactive in maintaining physician owned services that allow us to improve patients'' access to care such as in-office radiology and physical therapy services. We are under scrutiny from governmental watchdogs and third party payors to make sure we utilize these services appropriately.
The VOS Board is very excited about the future of our society. Our goal over the next year is to increase the membership. We have and are planning to meet with several regional orthopaedic groups in the Commonwealth to make sure that they understand how important our society is to the orthopaedic health of our patients and what we are providing for our members at the level of state representation.
We are looking forward to hosting the VOS meeting next year at the Hotel Roanoke, in Roanoke, Virginia. Dr. Michael Wolfe and Dr. Trevor Owen will be our program directors for the meeting. We will have national and state experts update us on cutting edge treatment modalities for limb deformity correction, femoral acetabular impingement and controversies in total joint replacement. We hope to see as many members, physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners at the meeting as is possible.
