NJ-ACEP continues to represent the interests of emergency medicine and work with other specialist societies through the Access to Care Coalition and actively oppose the Out of Network Legislation (S-1285), sponsored by Senator Vitale.  Trenton is in the middle of a fierce Budget battle with a July 1 deadline and the Out of Network legislation has become tangled in this year's budget and other politically charged issues, once again, including Governor Christie and Senator Vitale's proposal to take $300 Million in Horizon's surplus for opioid addiction treatment (among other reforms for transparency within Horizon's organizational structure).

We learned late Friday night that S-1285, the OON Transparency/Disclosure/Arbitration legislation, would be added to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee for Monday without public notice and NJACEP leadership reached out to members of the Committee over the weekend, as did NJ-ACEP's lobbyist and the Coalition in advance of the hearing.  S-3299, the OON Transparency/ Disclosure-only legislation sponsored by Senators Sarlo (D) and Oroho (R) and supported by NJ-ACEP and the Coalition was also scheduled for the same hearing on Monday.   Putting both these bills on the committee agenda at the same time was a compromise by the sponsors and Senate leadership.  S-3299 addresses transparency and disclosure without setting prices or dispute resolution.

S-3299 was unanimously approved by the Committee Monday with support from the Coalition, individual specialty societies, and NJHA.  And, although 5 Republicans and Chairman Sarlo (D) abstained on the vote for S-1285, the balance of the democrats, some expressing reservations, supported S-1285 and it was approved by the Committee.  NJHA and the physician community all opposed S-1285.  NJHA had previously supported this measure and their Board last week withdrew its support.

•  NJPMP’s Interstate Data Sharing now includes:  PA, MA, NH, ME and WV.

•  Expands patient history searches to two years of patient’s prescription records.

•  Automatically converts dosages of commonly-prescribed opioids of differing potency, such as codeine, fentanyl, and oxycodone, into a standard value known as “morphine milligram equivalents” (MME).  

OPIOID PRESCRIBING AND RESOURCES 

The State has created a webpage with all the information you need on the new opioid prescribing laws, as well as links to key resources including a sample one-page pain management agreement and FAQs on the law.

Click READ MORE for description of the bill

Thank you to Dr. Jenice Forde-Baker who testified during the Senate Health Committee hearing on the ED PMP exemption bill on Monday, May 14. She did a great job explaining the need for ED exemption and answered the questions posed.  NJ-ACEP continues to fight this bill. Click READ MORE to view her testimony.

Our first meeting regarding women leadership in emergency medicine was a great success!  

Doctors and medical students from all over the state joined our board meeting and then participated in a session where we talked about "Networking tips". We then had a general networking event followed by our annual Director Dinner -the speaker was incredible and thought provoking - Dr. Brenner spoke about "Building a New Model of Care For the Most Complex Patients."   

We have a few exciting upcoming events - Our next board meeting on March 2 at 9:30 am in Hamilton Township, NJ.  We will have a similar post-meeting session regarding "Negotiating Tips", starting around 12:30 pm.    

At this meeting, we will also select one attending AND one resident physician to receive FREE registration to ACEP's annual Leadership and Advocacy Conference being held March 12-15 in Washington, DC.    

If you plan to attend the March 2nd event, please RSVP to Lauren Myers at lmyers@amrms.com to allow us to accommodate accordingly.   

Homewood Suites by Hilton, 960 US 130 Hamilton Twp, NJ 08690

Thank you to Dr. Jeffrey Brenner for speaking at the 2017 ED Directors Dinner!

And a special thanks to our sponsors:

Allergan

EmCare

Janssen Pharmaceuticals

Vitas Healthcare

ACCESS TO CARE COALITION AND MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE  VOICE OPPOSITION TO PROPOSED OUT-OF-NETWORK BILL A-1952/S-1285 AND OFFER SUPPORT OF BILL A-4228

Members of the Access to Care Coalition and the Legislature held a news conference today at the State House in Trenton on December 5, 2016 to voice opposition to the Out-of-Network Bill A-1952/S-1285 and support for Bill A-4228/S2674.The group unanimously supports bill A-4228, which requires increased notice by physicians, hospitals and insurance companies to consumers about healthcare costs.    

“We want to make sure there is more transparency from health insurers, so that consumers are not hit with surprise bills for out-of-network services,” said Larry Downs, CEO, Medical Society of New Jersey. “That’s why we support Bill -4228 and oppose Bill A-1952/S-1285.”   

The Access to Care Coalition, comprised of twenty groups representing more than 10,000 physicians and other providers, came together to address inconsistencies within New Jersey consumers’ health plan coverage; to call for more transparency from health insurers and to address the issue of surprise bills that can accompany out-of-network healthcare services.   

“Many patients think if they have an 80/20 health insurance, the insurance company will pay 80 percent of the bill, but that is not always the case,” said Dr. Rajnik W Raab, a neurosurgeon.  “What often happens is that insurance companies will pay only eighty percent of the Medicare reimbursement rate, leaving patients responsible for paying much more than they expected.”

Several other physicians spoke of the difficulties they and their patients face on a regular basis in terms of out-of-network, surprise bills, including Dr. Joseph Costabile (surgery), Dr. Nicole Saphier (radiology), Dr. Mark Rosenberg (emergency), and Dr. David Dupree (surgery).