House of Delegates: Opening Session Summary

The Medical Society's annual meeting opened this morning with spirited remarks from President Dale Magee, who recounted what the MMS has been doing for several years to correct the serious problems in the Group Insurance Commission's physician ranking program, the Clinical Performance Improvement initiative.

Magee said that despite working with the GIC, its consultants and participating health plans to correct the programs, the issues are more serious than ever.

He said, "What we have got coming this July is more doctors being tiered at the individual level, measures being used that aren't relevant to the specialties that the doctors are practicing, procedures being included in physician reports that they don't perform, patients being included in reports that they don't take care of, doctors being put in tiers they don't deserve to be put in, patients being asked to pay co-pays that are higher without good justification, and the Group Insurance Commission is telling everyone this is the solution to the health care problem today."

Magee said he's received hundreds of e-mails, letters and phone calls from physicians who are upset about the CPI. "And they are asking, where is the Medical Society?" Noting that the Board of Trustees authorized legal action against the program recently, Magee said, "There are times when the right thing to do is to stop the wrong thing from happening." This remark was greeted with applause from the 200 delegates assembled.

The delegates then approved by acclamation the slate of nominees for the coming year:
President: Bruce Auerbach, MD
President -Elect: Mario Motta, MD
Vice President: Alice Coombs, MD
Secretary-Treasurer: Richard Aghababian, MD
Assistant Secretary-Treasurer: Deanna Ricker, MD
Speaker: Lee Perrin, MD
Vice Speaker: Richard Pieters, MD