House of Delegates Concludes Session

The House of Delegates concluded its lengthy annual meeting this afternoon after adopting 24 policies and resolutions.

During its afternoon session, the House voted that the Society's incident-based peer review principles should be applied to health insurance companies, as well as to health care facilities. The House also said the Society should work with "appropriate entities" to explore the possibility of developing a process for an independent appeal and review of disputed peer review outcomes.

In another resolution, the House said that insurers seeking to recoup funds already paid to physicians and other providers should abide by the same time limit that they to providers for submitting claims. Though there are exceptions, insurers require physicians to submit claims within 90 days. By state law, insurers are required to pay clean, valid claims within 45 days of submission.

For more information, read the MMS news release.

Saturday, the topic of the Annual Meeting's education session will address how each member of the health care sharesd in the burdens and solutions for a healthy future.

The New England Journal of Medicine's annual Shattuck Lecture follows with a unique format: A Socratic-style seminar and roundtable with leading health care experts. It will be led by NYU law professor Arthur Miller, and will discuss the problems of health care access and coverage in America. A video of the seminar will eventually be posted on the New England Journal of Medicine website and made available to the general public at no charge.