Monroe County Medical Society (MCMS) welcomed its newly elected 2018-2019 officers at the Society’s 197th annual meeting on May 2, 2018.

Surinder Devgun, MD, was elected as the 2018-2019 MCMS President. Dr. Devgun has been a private practice physician at Rochester Gastroenterology Associates since 2005. In addition, he is an attending Gastroenterologist at both Unity Hospital and Rochester General Hospital of Rochester Regional Health. Dr. Devgun volunteers as teaching faculty at Unity Health System's Medicine Residency program and is an author of numerous abstracts and posters with his residents. Dr. Devgun has been a member of Monroe County Medical Society since 2005. 

Members of the Executive Committee are:

• President: Surinder Devgun, MD, a gastroenterologist at Rochester Gastroenterology Associates, LLP;
  
• President-Elect: Lisa Smith, MD, an internist/pediatrician at Ridgewood Med-Peds;
  
• Secretary: Edith Grannum, MD, a family practice physician in solo practice at The Family Medicine Practice of Edith Grannum MD;
  
• Treasurer, Susan Danahy, MD, a board certified diagnostic radiologist at Borg & Ide Imaging;
  
•  Member-at-Large: J. Chad Teeters, MD, Executive Medical Director of Accountable Health Partners and a practicing cardiologist and Chief of Cardiology at Highland Hospital;
  
•  Member-at-Large: Balazs Zsenits, MD, an internist who also serves as Chief Medical Information Officer at Rochester Regional Health; and
  
• Immediate Past President: Peter Ronchetti, MD, a hand surgeon at Hand Surgery Associates, LLP 

2018 - 2019 Board of Censors:

•       Wade Hedegard, MD
•       Shylasree Krishnan, MD
•       Christine Stewart, MD
•       Jerry Svoboda, MD
•       Matthew Witmer, MD
•       Rachael Wojtovich, MD

2018 - 2019 Delegates to the Medical Society of the State of New York

•       Ahmed Ghazi, MD
•       Allison Giordano, MD
•       Tarun Kothari, MD
•       Raymond Lanzafame, MD 

2018 - 2019 Hospital Representatives

•       James Haley, MD, Unity
•       Jennifer Muniak, MD - Highland 
•       Robert M. Kerper, MD, Strong Memorial
•       Derek J. tenHoopen, MD, Rochester General

Monroe County Medical Society has recognized Patricia A. Bomba, MD, MACP and Ann Marie Cook with its 2018 Edward Mott Moore Physician and Layperson Awards. This award recognizes individuals whose dedication to the community goes above and beyond the usual call of duty.

2018 Edward Mott Moore Physician Award
PATRICIA A. BOMBA, MD, MACP
Vice President and Medical Director, Geriatrics, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield 

Dr. Patricia Bomba has been working on end-of-life issues from a population health perspective for well over two decades, earning local, state, national, and international recognition as a passionate advocate for the elderly and their families.

Dr. Bomba credits her drive to her mother. As a young girl, she helped her mom take care of several ill family members with patience, compassion, and humanism. Dr. Bomba uses many of those lessons she learned in her work today in assisting patients in their final stages of life. Inspired by her mother’s conversations about her own final wishes and personal stories from her patients and the community, Dr. Bomba developed the Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment form and program, known as MOLST, which honors patient requests as a critical element in providing quality end-of-life care in every health care setting. MOLST became a New York statewide law in 2008 and today, virtually every state has adopted a similar form and program. In 2011 eMOLST was introduced as the electronic version of the paper form and process to ensure a standardized clinical protocol is followed and there are no medical errors in completion. eMOLST is now being implemented across the state. Dr. Bomba’s input on the statewide adoption no doubt benefits countless numbers of patients’ quality of life.

Since taking on her role as Vice President and Medical Director of Geriatrics at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield in 2000, she has had a far-reaching impact on the care of patients beyond the Rochester community. Her work in developing best practices in end of life care led to the development of training courses and as well as two websites devoted to education, services and best practices, www.compassionandsupport.org and www.molst.org. 

Dr. Bomba spent 17 years in private practice in the Rochester community and has the reputation as a competent, kind and effective physician. She is one of the first physicians in our community to embrace geriatrics and her standing in the community helped to further the field. 

2018 Edward Mott Moore Layperson Award
ANN MARIE COOK
President and CEO, Lifespan of Greater Rochester 

Ann Marie Cook’s passion for older adults and the issues that envelop them began 22 years ago when she joined Lifespan as a department director. From there she moved into the Chief Operating Officer role, and in 2004 she was appointed President/CEO. 

Known throughout the nonprofit and health care communities for her honesty, integrity and expertise, Ann Marie has spent the last 20 years forging partnerships that lead to service enhancements while always keeping what is best for older adults and caregivers as her primary focus.

Ann Marie Cook has demonstrated decades of sustained and effective service for countless elders, their caregivers, physicians and medical providers across the area and New York State. Her leadership has contributed to Rochester being one of the best places to be a geriatrician or a geriatric patient.

About the Edward Mott Moore Award
Each year the Monroe County Medical Society presents the Edward Mott Moore award to a physician and a layperson whose lives reflect the qualities exemplified by the career and service of Edward Mott Moore, M.D., - a physician, teacher, investigator, professional leader, and contributor to the Rochester community.  Dr. Moore was Surgeon-in-Chief at St. Mary’s Hospital from its opening in 1857 until his death, at the age of 88, in 1908.

Learn more and register at www.warner.rochester.edu/go/unrest

The CMS wants to launch a new model that will allow Medicare enrollees to contract directly with physicians. Advocates warn the approach could undermine access to care for the sickest patients.  READ MORE

If you can’t open the article, that’s OK.  The article is addressed by the following:

 CMS is looking for your comments of the following RFI.  Please review the following links:

https://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/direct-provider-contracting/

https://innovation.cms.gov/Files/x/dpc-rfi.pdf

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will publish the Open Payments Program Year 2017 data and updates to the previous program years’ data in June 2018.

Review and dispute for the Program Year 2017 Open Payments data publication began on April 1, 2018 and will end on May 15, 2018.

Physician and teaching hospital review of the data is voluntary, but strongly encouraged. Please keep in mind the following reminders:

• Disputes must be initiated by May 15, 2018 in order to be reflected in the June 2018 data publication. For more information on review and dispute timing and publication refer to the Review and Dispute Timing and Data Publication Quick Reference Guide.
• CMS does not meditate or facilitate disputes. Physicians and teaching hospitals should work directly with reporting entities to resolve disputes.  
• Registration in the Open Payments system is required in order to participate in review and dispute activities.

If you have never registered with Open Payments before:

Make sure you have your National Provider Identifier (NPI) number and State License Number (SLN). Initial registration is a two-step process:

1. Register in the CMS Enterprise Identity Management System (EIDM);
2. Register in the Open Payments system

For users who have previously registered:

Users that have registered during previous program years do not need to re-register.

Please note:
If the account has not been accessed for within the last 60 days the account will have been locked due to inactivity. To unlock an account go to the CMS Enterprise Portal, enter your user ID and correctly answer all challenge questions to gain access to your account. You will be prompted to create a new password.

If the account has not been accessed for 180 days or more, the account will be deactivated. To reinstate the account contact the Open Payments Help Desk at 1-855-326-8366; 1-844-649-2766 (TY Line) 

For more information about the registration process, visit the physician and teaching hospital registration page on the Open Payments website.

Questions — Contact Live Help Desk

Submit questions to the Help Desk via email at openpayments@cms.hhs.gov or by calling 1-855-326-8366, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. (ET), excluding Federal holidays.

The Help Desk refers media inquiries to CMS’ Press Office for response.

TO REGISTER: http://www.cvent.com/d/stqrfv

Register at: lecture.urmc.edu/satcher

PathStone Presents - Provoking Thought!, an opportunity to meet and interact with thought leaders engaged in addressing persistent poverty.  Our inaugural luncheon will feature Dr. Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City”.  WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 2018 11:30AM - 1:30PM TEMPLE B’RITH KODESH 2131 ELMWOOD AVENUE, ROCHESTER, NY 14618 Register:  http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ef71euwufc13d649&llr=umex7gdab  A Reserved Table for Ten (10) -- Special Rate for Community Partners -- $450 Use the Promo Code of NONPROFIT for your discount. Discount expires 4/15/2018.  For tickets, visit our website PathStone.org

Building on our nearly five decades of success in Community Development, Workforce Development and Emergency Support services, PathStone is excited to launch PathStone Presents-Provoking Thought!, an opportunity for community builders to meet and interact with renowned thought leaders engaged in addressing the most challenging conundrum facing our community -- persistent poverty. 

PathStone Presents-Provoking Thought! will feature Dr. Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City”, to shine a light on an often-misunderstood public crisis of housing instability and to galvanize a citywide conversation addressing the region's deep housing challenges. Dr. Desmond is a brilliant sociologist and dynamic storyteller who truly understands the relationship between unstable housing and poverty. This event will bring attention to housing insecurity which overpowers thousands of low-income families, often several times each year.  In Rochester alone 8,298 eviction notices were filed and 3,408 were executed in 2016 according to figures compiled by Rochester’s Legal Aid Society.  By November of 2017, 7,943 eviction notices had already filed and 3,226 executed.  It is our hope that hosting Dr. Desmond will bring much needed attention to the struggles faced by low-income people living in our community to encourage activism and generate ways that we can work together to make our communities stronger. Follow the link below to register now for this event. http://bit.ly/PATHSTONEDESMOND