Philadelphia Medicine Fall 2020 - 21

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PAMED House of Delegates
not 'business as usual'
By Mark Austerberry, PCMS Executive Director

T

he Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED) House of Delegates (HOD) meets once a year to determine the association's
direction and policymaking.

declaration has expired. PAMED will strongly advocate against
legislation that aims to extend the waiver of such scope of practice
regulations.

For the first time in its 171 years, the annual business meeting
was not held in-person but virtually on Saturday, Oct. 24.

* Rescinding Level 2 requirements for licensure: Delegates directed
PAMED to advocate with state medical boards to rescind USMLE
Step 2 CS and COMLEX Level 2 PE.

Philadelphia County Medical Society had 64 delegates of the 270
elected delegates from around the state. Delegates addressed many
of the urgent issues that face health care today. Below are just some
of the resolutions either adopted or directed to PAMED's board for
decision or further study.

Public health and education:
* Racism as a public health issue: PAMED supports identifying
racism as a public health issue. Delegates voted to direct PAMED's
Health Diversity Task Force to educate physicians on optimizing
aspects of clinical practice, workforce development, community-based advocacy and research practices to address the effects
of racism in health care on patients.
* Health care and organ transplant equity for those with disabilities:
Delegates voted to support equitable inclusion of people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in transplant
surgery eligibility. PAMED will also strongly advocate for policy
that ensures IDD populations have equitable access to health
care and resources.
* Emergency pandemic guidelines: PAMED will continue to
work with appropriate stakeholders to determine emergency
pandemic protocols to address issues such as hospital resources
and distribution of health information to the public.

Health-care legislation and regulations:
* Physician supervision following the COVID-19 emergency: PAMED
will support the return of physician supervision requirements
and scope-of-practice regulations after the governor's emergency

* COVID-19 liability protections: Delegates approved a resolution
directing PAMED to advocate for liability protection for independently practicing physicians who treat COVID-19 patients
that mirror the protections for physicians who treat COVID-19
patients in hospitals or ambulatory surgical facilities found in
Gov. Tom Wolf 's executive order.
* Exclusive contracting in hospitals: The issue of closed, "invitation
only" medical staffs - also known as exclusive contracting - creates an environment that unfairly affects providers at all levels
of patient care. Delegates voted to refer the issue to PAMED's
board for consideration and decision.

Practice issues and reimbursement:
* Data collection on health care workers affected by the pandemic:
PAMED will strongly advocate to the Pennsylvania Department
of Health (DOH) for data collection and public reporting on the
number of all health-care workers who contracted COVID-19 and
those who died as a result of COVID-19. We will also advocate
for the automatic collection of such data during future pandemics.
* Aid for health-care workers during COVID-19 pandemic: The
delegates voted to refer the issue of hazard pay for essential healthcare workers for timely decision by the PAMED's board of trustees.
Look for updates online at www.pamedsoc.org/HOD.
The 2021 PAMED House of Delegates meeting is scheduled
for Hershey, Pa., on Oct. 29 to 31, 2021. *

Fall 2020 : Philadelphia Medicine 21
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Philadelphia Medicine Fall 2020

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