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Members of the organization have told us that the value of this organization is much greater than its cost and lies in its ability to:

• Connect members with other plastic surgeon colleagues, policymakers and regulators in New York  
• Access and receive information specific to issues related to the practice of plastic surgery in New York
• Provide education on how to negotiate contracts as you enter or change practice, survive lawsuits, navigate out of network regulations 
• Further define the importance of having an entity at the state level to discuss issues directly with elected officials

What do YOU think? What do YOU want?

What We are Doing for You, Your Practice and Your Patients

The Society has been actively working on (this list is not exhaustive):

• Preventing medical liability expansions and encourage efforts to reduce meritless claims
• Opposing efforts to establish a single payer system in NY
• Reversing regulatory requirements for additional reporting of OBS procedures
  
• Protecting patients from misleading advertisements
• Ensuring children with congenital anomalies have access to reconstructive and rehabilitative services
• Advocating to reduce the endless hassles with prior authorizations
• Making medical reasons the only allowable exception to vaccination requirements. 

Your membership dollar provides direct resources for:

• Advocacy and Governmental Affairs Services
• Educational Events
• Communications / Website / Grassroots Action Center
• Management / Lobbying contracts
• Other expenses like travel and operations like supplies and telecommunications

Your membership in the NYSSPS is vital to our efforts!  Thank you again for your commitment to the Society and the profession. 

Urge Representatives to Support Balanced Comprehensive Medical Liability Reform 

In the final hours of this year's legislative session, the medical community is advocating against efforts that would greatly increase your medical liability premiums including legislation that would significantly expand wrongful death awards and others.  

Enactment of any of these bills could significantly drive up your liability costs and effect a physician's ability to defend themselves in a malpractice lawsuit.

Please contact your Senators and Assemblymembers to urge that they oppose these bills and urge that they support balanced, comprehensive liability reform.  

A pre-written message is available for you.  You may modify to reflect your own practice situation. Every email counts!

Send Your Message

Opioid prescribing by New York State physicians has decreased 37.5% percent between 2013-2018 and opioid prescriptions also decreased by 11.2% from 2017 to 2018 according to data recently released by the IQVIA, Danbury, CT,  a data collection firm within the healthcare industry. The data is available here.

Additionally, the American Medical Association (AMA) has released its 2019 Opioid Progress Report—the third year that the AMA has reported on actions that physicians have taken to help end the nation’s opioid epidemic. The report shows significant decreases in opioid prescribing as well as increases in PDMP use and naloxone prescriptions. In addition to the national data, the AMA also released state-level data for opioid prescribing and PDMP use. New York State physicians and other users of the prescription monitoring program logged 23,931,571 inquiries in 2018, a 42% increase since 2014.

ASPS Efforts

In light of an ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States, the ASPS Patient Safety Committee has created a webpage dedicated to opioid prescribing resources. This site includes general information on opioids, a free CME course, and an ASPS Advocacy section.

NYSSPS was recently interviewed on the Capitol Pressroom with host, Susan Arbetter, to discuss efforts to promote insurance coverage for babies born with a congenital anomaly.

The Society has launched a campaign to educate policymakers and the public that 1 in 38 New York babies are born with a congenital anomalies like a cleft palate.

The plastic surgery that is required for many of these children is typically not covered by insurance which turns families to Medicaid. 

Access the recording: http://www.wcny.org/may-23-2019-improving-insurance-access/

On Tuesday, May 28, 2019 the New York State legislature will hear public testimony on a proposal to create single payer system in the state.

The New York Health Act, A.5248/S.3577, would replace traditional health insurance coverage and public health coverage programs with single-payer health coverage, including long-term care, for all New Yorkers. The program would be publicly funded, including existing federal support for Medicaid and Medicare. New Yorkers would not be required to pay premiums, deductibles, co-pays, or out-of network charges.

This hearing is the first of a series of hearings that will provide an opportunity for comments and suggestions from stakeholders around the state on the New York Health Act.

NYSSPS leader, Daniel Huang, MD, will testify on behalf of the Society.  The Society plans to cite concerns regarding delays in care, poorer outcomes and economic viability for practices. 

NYSSPS acknowledges the Sponsor’s efforts to add provisions that remove the requirement for prior authorizations for health care services.  Additionally, we acknowledge the provisions to allow for health care providers to collectively negotiate with New York Health including payment rates and methodologies.

The Society support solutions that build on the strengths of New York’s current system and will continue to work with the legislature to identify ways to advance healthcare delivery improvements. We strongly oppose the New York Health Plan in its current iteration but hope to work toward a viable plan acceptable to all stakeholders.

To submit your own testimony, please visit this link for more details. 

In New York, 1 in 38 babies are born with a congenital anomaly. On average, children with congenital anomalies can expect anywhere from three to five surgical procedures throughout their childhood to restore a more normal appearance and function.

Although insurance carriers may provide coverage for the initial procedures, they may resist coverage of the later stage procedures, claiming they are cosmetic and not medically necessary. Denial or delay of these procedures – which by definition are reconstructive – could lead to long-term physical, functional, and psychological injuries.

Join us in the campaign to Give Kids a Chance and modify existing laws to ensure there is insurance coverage for congenital anomalies. Learn more > www.1in38.org

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE As many of you know, in 2017, the NYS Department of Health (NYSDOH) implemented an adverse event monitoring program for office-based surgery (OBS) facilities. As part of an initial pilot program that began in 2017, OBS practices were asked to voluntarily file reports with the NYSDOH. Approximately 18% of all OBS practices in NY State voluntarily filed reports with NYSDOH in 2017 and 2018. In late 2018, NYSDOH issued a proposed regulation that would have mandated specific annual reporting by all OBS practices. Our Society reviewed the proposed changes to 10 NYCRR 1000 and found that such regulatory changes would require burdensome and costly monitoring/tracking by OBS practices. The proposed regulations could have made office-based surgery economically untenable for small OBS facilities like those run by many plastic surgeons. We filed rational objections during NYSDOH’s public comment period and also brought to the attention of NYSDOH many of the mechanisms, already in place, that facilitate patient safety in the accredited OBS facilities in which board-certified plastic surgeons operate. I am pleased to share with you that, following the public comment period in which the NYSSPS vigorously opposed the proposed regulatory changes, NYSDOH announced that OBS practices will not be mandated to report under the OBS monitoring program for 2019. Furthermore, the NYSDOH indicated that alternative data sources for procedural monitoring—that would hopefully be less burdensome—will be sought.  We will continue to monitor any proposed changes to the OBS reporting regulations, and work to keep OBS in NYS both safe and economically viable for plastic surgeons and their patients. Thank you for your membership to the NYSSPS as is vital to our advocacy efforts - this is but one example!   Best, David T. Greenspun, MD, MSc, FACS NYSSPS President

NYSSPS is proud to announce that it is working to advance efforts in the state to address insurance coverage for congenital anomalies. With support from ASPS, the Society will educate the public and policymakers on the importance to expedite care for those impacted with by congenital anomalies and seek legislative and regulatory changes to the existing law. More information on how you can become involved will be released in the coming weeks. 

The 1in38 Campaign will focus it efforts on the following: 

Educate

One in 38 New York babies are born with a congenital anomaly.

Nationally, of the 120,000 children born annually with congenital anomalies, approximately 40,000 require reconstructive surgery. 

Although surgeons are able to correct many of these problems, some insurance companies deny or excessively delay access to care by labeling the procedures not medically necessary–“cosmetic,” or “non-functional” in nature.

Although carriers may provide coverage for initial procedures, they may resist coverage of the later stage procedures by claiming they are cosmetic and/or not medically necessary. 

Regulate

Proactively address delays and denials of coverage for procedures and therapies.

Legislate

Require all health insurance policies to cover medically necessary procedures and therapies.

The NYS Society of Plastic Surgeons issued its opposition today to the NYS Senate Health Committee to advance legislation that would remove the rights of hospitals and insurance carriers to include standards for credentialing and privileging practices. 

NYSSPS and ASPS are committed to ensuring  patients have the best care possible, and  believe that, across the practice of medicine, such a commitment requires physicians to: (1) stay abreast of the latest clinical research and standards of care; (2) demonstrate their mastery of the latest knowledge through objective and reliable assessment methods; and (3) integrate this knowledge into their practice. 

NYSSPS believes the commitment to lifelong learning and clinical practice improvement that board certification and maintenance of certification (MOC) represent are appropriate criteria for hospitals and insurers undergoing credentialing. 

It does not necessarily think MOC should be a mandated requirement in every state and facility, however, it does believe that S5280/A5140 undercuts the rights of hospitals and insurance carriers to determine what standards are required for participation. 

The government should not dictate standards to experts on credentialing and privileging committees, as these determinations are made through highly-specialized evaluations. 

This bill takes decisions that should be in the hands of doctors and places them in the hands of policymakers. Board certification is unquestionably an appropriate criterion to consider in licensure and for credentialing a physician to a hospital staff or an insurance network, and legislative efforts to undermine its relevance are unwise.

> For the complete memorandum, please contact the NYSSPS office. 

The Doctors Company, the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurer, and the exclusively endorsed carrier for the NYSSPS and ASPS^®, has announced a $10 million dividend. Since 1976, The Doctors Company has paid more than $425 million in dividends.

The 2019 dividend, approved by The Doctors Company Board of Governors, will provide a credit of 7 percent to eligible members in ASPS.

Eligible members will receive this year’s dividend on their annual premium for policy renewals on or after July 1, 2019.

For more information, please contact:

Brian Dalton
Assistant Vice President, Business Development
The Doctors Company, Northeast Region
105 Maxess Road, Suite 124, Melville, NY 11747
Mailing Address: PO Box 1471, East Lansing, MI 48826
Direct: (631) 248-2701, Toll Free: (800) 748-0465, extension 2701
Brian.Dalton@thedoctors.com