Last Friday, the Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) Board of Directors held their mid-summer board meeting at the MSMS Headquarters in East Lansing.

During the Board's committee meetings, Richard A. Deem, Senior Vice President, Advocacy, American Medical Association (AMA), provided updates on the Affordable Care Act. The Committee on Legislation and the Committee on Health Care Delivery combined meetings to learn more about the current legislative efforts on national health care reform.

The AMA has since released a statement on Health System Reform:

"The health reform debate is by no means over. Congress must begin a collaborative process that produces a bipartisan approach to improve health care in our country.

"The status quo is unacceptable. Near-term action is needed to stabilize the individual/nongroup health insurance marketplace. In the long term, stakeholders and policymakers need to address the unsustainable trends in health care costs while achieving meaningful, affordable coverage for all Americans. The American Medical Association is ready to work on short- and long-term solutions.

"The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act and the 21st Century Cures Act are recent examples of what can be accomplished to improve the health of the nation when Congress works on a bipartisan basis with key stakeholder groups. Success is achieved when patients, physicians and policymakers work together to improve the health of individuals, families and communities."

Mr. Deem also provided updates on several other policy areas:

• CMS released a proposed rule that would make changes in the second year of the Quality Payment Program (QPP) under MACRA. One of the key proposed changes is to increase the low-volume threshold.
    
• The AMA is working with Health and Human Services (HHS) on addressing the administrative hassle of prior authorizations within Medicare and Medicaid.
    
• Within the new proposed fee schedule, CMS attempts to better align quality programs, easy some of the reporting burdens and penalties and will begin reimbursing for the Diabetes Prevention Program.

Based on direction from the annual House of Delegates meeting, the MSMS Board of Directors continued discussions on the Society's organizational remodeling process. As part of the next steps, the MSMS Board of Directors reviewed a series of recommendations that came out of the MSMS House of Delegates input session. The input report highlighted four areas of focus:

• Increase MSMS membership, which is critical to support a strong, effective, and financially sustainable organization.
    
• MSMS must focus on issues of strategic importance to the future of all physicians in Michigan.
    
• MSMS programs must deliver value to all physicians.
     
• Decision-making and work processes must be aligned to deliver value to all physicians.

Further information will be shared with and feedback will be requested from the House of Delegates leaders and County Leadership.