MSV Annual Meeting Recap

Dr. Ilvy Cotterell and Dr. Seth Cheatham

By Ilvy H. Cotterell, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
VCU Health

Drs. Seth Cheatham and Ilvy Cotterell attended this year’s MSV meeting at the Homestead as the two VOS delegates.

The Medical Society of Virginia (MSV) was founded in 1820 and is the Commonwealth’s largest physician organization, representing more than 30,000 physicians, residents, physician assistants and medical students. MSV strives to advance high-quality healthcare and make Virginia the best place to practice medicine.

The meeting began with a recap from the previous year, thanking Dr. Richard Szucs, a private practice radiologist from Richmond, for his work as President. In his presidential address, he emphasized the importance of empowering physicians to achieve their professional goals while maintaining a sense of well-being. Physician burn-out is an all too familiar topic affecting many of us, and the MSV has several programs in place to promote physician wellness.

Secretary of Health and Human services, Dr. Daniel Carey, gave an update recapping the Medicaid expansion, along with the section 1115 waivers, permitting individual states to waive federal guidelines on Medicaid to allow states to pilot and evaluate innovative approaches to serving beneficiaries. He touched on the fact that Certificate of Public Need (COPN) continues to be a primary issue in healthcare reform. He emphasized that physician leadership and engagement is of upmost importance in shaping public healthcare policy, and we should not be deterred by not too infrequent frustrations in the process or seemingly slow changes in achieving the desired results.

Dr. Bruce Scott gave the American Medical Association (AMA) update, as their recently elected speaker of the house, touching on the AMAs work on several current hot topics. Surprise billing continues to be a crucial topic for which the AMA continues to work on developing policies aimed at addressing unanticipated out-of-network care. The AMA is also working on a much needed Prior Authorizations reform, as the current practice of prior authorization is overused and existing processes present significant administrative and clinical concerns.

The opioid epidemic continues to be a nationwide crisis that the AMA Opioid Task force is working to reverse, with a 33% nationwide reduction to date, and 40% in Virginia. Lastly, the AMA continues to develop and strengthen policies aimed at the rapidly skyrocketing vaping and e-cigarette public health epidemic, including urging the FDA to prohibit use of flavoring in all tobacco products.

Dr. Clifford Deal III, a general surgeon in Richmond, was installed as the new president of the MSV. In his inaugural speech, he spoke of the special obligation that we as physicians have to fight for healthcare that upholds the values of service, compassion, excellence and integrity.

Thanks to Lauren Schmitt for prepping us on the resolutions on the agenda at this year’s House of Delegates meeting. The House of Delegates is the policymaking body that decides MSV’s position on public policies. In the session, delegates vote on whether to adopt the submitted resolution as official MSV policy. This year none of the resolutions on the table were any which VOS needed to get involved in, such as COPN or surprise billing. A full list can be found at https://www.msv.org/rcreports

Next year’s MSV annual meeting will take place Friday, October 9 through Sunday, October 11, 2020 at the Omni Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia.