Berks County Medical Society Medical Record Spring 2020 - 4

President's Message

Dear BCMS Member,
COVID-19.

Michael L. Haas, MD
President

Coronavirus. Call it what you will. COVID-19 has dominated the world stage for the
first few months of the year. As healthcare professionals, it is critical that we not only educate ourselves
regarding the virus and its potential effects, but that we ensure that the public response is appropriate.
The PA Medical Society recommends that we "Prepare. Don't Panic!" Excellent advice. There are
innumerable resources available to guide physicians including the pamedsoc.org website. We thank Dr.
Powell for her timely piece in this edition of the Medical Record. Your county medical society is working
with our local health systems and other stakeholders to ensure timely and accurate dissemination of
information and guidance. Please contact TJ with inquiries.
I'd like to make sure we stay on top of news (unrelated to COVID-19) from Harrisburg: The House
is planning to introduce legislation banning the use of non-compete clauses in the employment of health
care practitioners. With increasing employment of physicians by large health care organizations, this is
seen as a maneuver to protect patients and to protect those practitioners from the larger organizations
with deeper pockets. Of course, this is a nuanced issue. In private practice, the use of non-compete
clauses has been a component of contracts for years to reduce the likelihood that a practitioner joins a
practice for a short period of time, using the resources of the practice to establish a patient base, only
to leave and start direct competition with the practice. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds in
Harrisburg-specifically whether legislators choose to exclude smaller entities from this ban.
Three health-related bills were signed into law this session by Governor Wolf:
1. HB427 "prohibits a health insurance carrier or policy that directly or indirectly covers the
treatment of Stage IV advanced metastatic cancer to require an enrollee to first fail to successfully
respond to a different drug, or prove a history of failure in the use of a different drug, before providing
coverage for a covered drug for which the drug has been approved by the U.S. FDA and the drug is
consistent with the best clinical practices for the treatment of Stage IV advanced metastatic cancer
and is supported by peer-reviewed medical literature." Haas translation: If an oncologist recommends an
FDA approved drug for advanced cancer, the insurance company can't require other drugs be tried first. Very
important, as some of the best new drugs are very, very expensive, and insurance companies at times employ this
as a 'delay tactic'.
2. HB 1001 "will require the state's Department of Health to license and regulate milk banks in the
Commonwealth."
3. SB 432 "grants certain individuals of Medicaid Managed Care Organizations to have access
to the information contained in the PDMP program." This was further amended to block political
subdivision of the Commonwealth to start its own variation of PDMP. Haas translation: Allows the use
of PDMP information to better identify potential prescription drug abuse among those enrolled in the state's
Medicaid program. Philadelphia had started to require submission of prescription data to the city's health
department. This effectively shuts down that requirement for submission to multiple entities, reducing burden
on Philadelphia doctors.

www.berkscms.org

http://www.pamedsoc.org

Berks County Medical Society Medical Record Spring 2020

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