I look forward to leading Palm Beach County Medical Society (PBCMS) in 2013. Under Dr. Jack Zeltzer 2012 was an extremely successful year on many fronts and the medical society continues to thrive. Membership has grown to over 1,400 members, the highest on record due to a highly successful member recruitment drive and reaching out to the medical students and resident physicians training in Palm Beach County. PBCMS will continue to reach out to employed and hospital-based physicians to join our membership as rules and regulations that affect private practice physicians eventually affect all physicians. Our society represents all physicians: young and old, independent and employed, active and retired, generalist and specialist, conservative and progressive.Dr. Zeltzer introduced a new member benefit that will help all physicians. PBCMS now offers a management services organization, or MSO, which gives individual physicians and small group practices access to support for practice management, electronic medical records and human resources, and the power of group purchasing for office supplies, malpractice insurance, accounting and payroll services and insurance payors. The MSO will enable physicians who wish to maintain an autonomous individual or small group practice to remain financially viable in an increasingly complicated and competitive market.
The mission of PBCMS is to ensure that doctors and their patients have a voice. We work locally in Palm Beach County and regionally with Dade and Broward County Medical Associations, we advocate on the state and national levels though the Florida Medical Association and the American Medical Association. With the election season behind us it is now more certain that much of the Affordable Care Act will be implemented over the next decade and we need to ensure it is implemented in a way that protects physicians and patients from harm. I insist physicians be part of the political conversation and continue to protect and care for all patients as we would our own family.
I care deeply about the total health of all Americans, which is why supporting the charitable arm of our organization, Palm Beach County Medical Society Services, is so important. Unique among medical societies, PBCMS Services supports Project Access, a successful program that has allowed Palm Beach County doctors, labs, imaging centers and hospitals to provide over $9.1 million in free care to uninsured patients in Palm Beach County.
PBCMS Services also supports the Healthcare Emergency Response Coalition, or HERC, which ensures that Palm Beach County is ready when disasters challenge the county’s health care delivery. HERC works with volunteer physicians, allied health providers, interpreters, office staff, hospital administrators and chaplains who make up the Medical Reserve Corps of Palm Beach County to position staff and resources appropriately to ensure we are ready when unanticipated emergency medical needs arise.
Two new PBCMS Services programs include an obesity coalition and a diabetes initiative modeled after the Institute for Healthcare Improvements’ Triple Aim program. Health care in the future should work toward achieving 3 goals: a better patient perception of the care experience, lower per capita health care costs, and better actual population health results. Physicians must take the lead in making this goal a reality, and indeed we have because PBCMS is the first medical society in the country to spearhead a Triple Aim program with the help of our community partners.
The best way to achieve a new reality is to help people take control their own health outcomes. Safe, inexpensive ways can achieve the same goals that are currently most often achieved through expensive, aggressive interventions. More surgery is not the answer to our country’s health and obesity epidemic, but rather doctor-guided lifestyle interventions can save money and save lives. Nutrition and lifestyle based interventions should become the cornerstone of all of our medical practices and PBCMS members should educate themselves on these subjects and support efforts politically to this end.
I want to make Palm Beach County a better place for doctors to work and ensure the good health and the ultimate economic future of our nation.
