THERE IS HOPE!

THANK YOU AND GODSPEED!!!!!! The bill in the FL House is HB 723 and the Senate Bill number is pending. Fl Rep. Dr. Julio Gonzalez and Sen. Jeff Brandes. are co sponsoring. Here is the bill's text, simple and direct:

HB 723 2017 CODING:
 Page 1 of 3 F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to maintenance of certification;
3 creating ss. 458.3113 and 459.0056, F.S.; providing
4 definitions; providing legislative intent; prohibiting
5 the Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine,
6 respectively, and the Department of Health, health
7 care facilities, and insurers from requiring certain
8 certifications as conditions of licensure,
9 reimbursement, employment, or admitting privileges;
10 providing construction; providing an effective date.
11
12 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
13 14 Section 1. Section 458.3113, Florida Statutes, is created
15 to read: 16 458.3113 Conditions of licensure, reimbursement,
17 employment, or admitting privileges.—
18 (1) For purposes of this section, the term:
19 (a) "Maintenance of certification" means a periodic
20 testing regimen, proprietary self-assessment requirement, peer
21 evaluation, or other requirement imposed by a recognizing agency
22 approved by the board pursuant to rule 64B8-11.001, Florida
23 Administrative Code.
24 (b) "Recertification" means a subsequent recognition or
25 certification of educational or scholarly achievement beyond
26 initial board certification in a subspecialty by a recognizing
27 agency approved by the board pursuant to rule 64B8-11.001,
28 Florida Administrative Code.
29 (2) It is the intent of the Legislature to further improve
30 the efficiency of the health care market and eliminate
31 unnecessary administrative and regulatory requirements.
32 (3) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the board,
33 the department, a health care facility licensed under chapter
34 395, or an insurer as defined in s. 624.03 may not require
35 maintenance of certification or recertification as a condition
36 of licensure, reimbursement, employment, or admitting privileges
37 for a physician who practices medicine and has achieved initial
38 board certification in a subspecialty pursuant to this chapter.
39 (4) This section may not be construed to prohibit the
40 board from requiring continuing medical education pursuant to
41 rule 64B8-13.001, Florida Administrative Code.
42 Section 2. Section 459.0056, Florida Statutes, is created
43 to read:
44 459.0056 Conditions of licensure, reimbursement,
45 employment, or admitting privileges.—
46 (1) For purposes of this section, the term:
47 (a) "Maintenance of certification" means a periodic
48 testing regimen, proprietary self-assessment requirement, peer
49 evaluation, or other requirement imposed by a recognizing agency
50 approved by the board pursuant to rule 64B15-14.001
51 Administrative Code.
52 (b) "Recertification" means a subsequent recognition or
53 certification of educational or scholarly achievement beyond
54 initial board certification in a subspecialty by a recognizing
55 agency approved by the board pursuant to rule 64B15-14.001,
56 Florida Administrative Code.
57 (2) It is the intent of the Legislature to further improve
58 the efficiency of the health care market and eliminate
59 unnecessary administrative and regulatory requirements.
60 (3) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the board,
61 the department, a health care facility licensed under chapter
62 395, or an insurer as defined in s. 624.03 may not require
63 maintenance of certification or recertification as a condition
64 of licensure, reimbursement, employment, or admitting privileges
65 for an osteopathic physician who practices medicine and has
66 achieved initial board certification in a subspecialty pursuant
67 to this chapter.
68 (4) This section may not be construed to prohibit the
69 board from requiring continuing medical education pursuant to
70 rule 64B15-13.001, Florida Administrative Code.
71 Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2017.

The MOC control bill would do the following:
1.       Prohibit MOC for Florida Medical License
2.       Prohibit mandatory MOC participation for membership on hospital medical staff.
3.       Prohibit mandatory MOC participation as condition to be included in Insurance physician panel.

PLEASE PASS THIS BILL TO STOP MOC IN FLORIDA!!

Electronic-Everything Will Kill Us

Logged into a payer-sponsored web portal for eligibility and claims yesterday. Big red statement at the top "It's time to update/verify your credentials for Florida Blue". This painful process, even if no practice demographic data has changed, must be repeated every 90 days, they claim due to a mandate from CMS. I didn't bother to look up the actual CMS mandate, why fight every single battle that presents itself? And believe me, there is a potential fight every second of every day in medicine. I presume this is to fight fraud, to verify info, to avoid a cataclysm. The insurance company can point to this and say, "see, we have a system to keep our providers accurately enrolled and processed" but every 90 days seems like overkill. It can certainly be every 180 days, with the caveat that any changes you must log into the portal to report the changes in your demographics--you moved, you got a new last name, a new phone number, etc.... no more inaccurate networks of yesteryear, now we're into the overkill of verifying your existence every 90 days.

What if you're dead? Who logs in then? Just a question.....

After logging in, I then have to log into the verification center using different "provider identification" numbers. Then I get error messages--oops, try again later. So I try again later and after 7 times I'm able to get into my screen for my practice. Then I labor through every sub section that has to be re-verified, clarified, and updated, even though in 90 days I didn't get a new phone, didn't have my license up for a new renewal, didn't change a single thing. I get to the end, then I have to upload government issue photo ID to show that I'm me ( my drivers license). Then I can print and submit this monstrosity after reading a tiny print waiver/disclosure, like the one you get but cannot read every time your iPhone IOS updates. So I click yes and then again, "oops, we are having difficulties, try again later". NOOOOOOOOOOO.

By now 3 hours have elapsed and I'm doing this in between patients, phone calls, and the every day running of a practice. I'm in the red-zone--furious, angry, and frustrated. I call them and try to get a human to see what the trouble is. On hold for 45 mins through different menu punching options. Then I get a person and explain the predicament and nightmare. She blithely tells me, "you're fine, doctor, we got your submission, we've had many phone calls and many problems with the system today". So why didn't you update your website to say so? Why force the issue and have people plodding through it like wet cement? Too bad. We don't care. We don't have the staff. No apologies, no explanations. Shut up doctor, you did it and can move on.

Every 90 days this kafka-esque must be repeated.

Government mandates have paralyzed all of medicine into this horrible nightmare, and I pray every day for the demise of the dysfunctional mess.