Greetings to our King County Medical Society members,
As I discussed in last month’s letter to membership, King County Medical Society is working hard to increase your impact on medical policy decisions specifically in King County. But sometimes the issues go far beyond.
After determining a proposed physician fee increase by the Washington Medical Commission (WMC) was excessive and unjustified, we set out to convince policy makers to reduce or halt the increase altogether. After many phone calls, emails, in-person meetings, and even a formal public disclosure request to the WMC, our team feels like we have successfully amplified your voices. I was grateful for the opportunity to discuss this issue with the WA State Secretary of Health, Dr. John Wiesman. Dr. Wiesman is now reviewing the WMC’s proposed fee increase and reading public input. Dr. Wiesman tells me he will make the final decision on the amount of increase, not the Medical Commission members as they do for all other WMC rule making. Once that evaluation is complete, the Secretary will meet with staff to review and consider all information and then make a decision to implement the rule or not.
I have provided Dr. Wiesman with the rate increase questions generated by our Board of Trustees and that your King County Medical Society sent to the WMC months ago. Our Board of Trustees raised substantive questions about the WMC’s last four years of budgets, their proposed licensing fee increase and the level of oversight they are subjected to. I also shared a graph that the King County Medical Society created which represents just one of the reasons why we believe the WMC’s proposed licensing fees to be excessive. Please note, we accumulated the data provided below from each state’s licensing websites – accuracy is dependent on their numbers so please leave some room for error. Feel free to share with your colleagues. We look forward to sharing with you the decision regarding the fee increase as soon as we hear the results.
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW AND ENLARGE)
June is Men’s Health Month. One of our members, Dr. Richard Pelman, a Clinical Professor of Urology at UW Medicine, and Men’s Health Chair of the Washington State Urology Society (WSUS) is the host of a podcast series, “The Original Guide to Men’s Health.” The podcast serves as a resource for, and a gateway to, health information specifically for guys. Find it on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, or Google Play.
The King County Medical Society’s Delegation is almost 60 members strong! Our delegates are sending in great new ideas for policy resolutions. More on that to come over the summer months. If you have ideas/issues that you’d like to suggest we look into, please email me directly, nbelcher@kcmsociety.org
Thank you so much for all you do.
Sincerely,
Nancy L. Belcher, PhD – CEO/King County Medical Society
