 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Daniel Singer, MD
This year has seen a renewal of our efforts to increase the involvement of the OSRS in the political arena. Working closely with OSMA, our efforts have resulted in successfull passage of Senate Bill 4, Prompt Pay legislation. By the time you receive this, the bill will have been signed by the governor. The OSRS was well represented at Ohio Physicians’ Day on April 3rd, 2001. Almost one hundred and fifty physicians gathered on that day in Columbus to meet in an organized fashion with our legislators in the House Office Building and in the Senate Office Building. We encouraged support for Prompt Pay Legislation, Point of Service Options for the Patient, and Physician Joint Negotiation - allowing physicians to negotiate jointly to level the playing field with insurance companies. The advantages to the patient were highlighted in the discussion for all three issues. This represents a recent example of our continued drive to build relationships with our legislators. We must advance beyond even our PACs efforts of RADPAC and ORSPAC to direct communication serving as representatives of physicians and patients to our local legislators. Our success will be realized when not only can we effect legislation but most importantly when we are actively sought out to give advice on Health Care Issues.
In order to help our membership in developing relationships with our local legislators five regional meetings will be held late this summer and early fall. The first will be in Toledo, followed quickly by Columbus, Cincinnati-Dayton, Akron, and Cleveland. These meetings will provide the opportunity for radiologists to meet with their legislators in a relaxed fashion to discuss the important issues our patients now facing in health care. The meetings will be organized by ORSPAC with the help of your local ACR Councilors. Announcements will be sent out by ORSPAC for these meetings. This may be the most important development in the advancement of organized radiology we have seen in recent times. The Executive Council strongly encourages the membership to attend one of these meetings. Please note that you do not have to be a member of ORSPAC or RADPAC to attend.
In closing, I would like to give special thanks to our Cleveland regional councilors, Frederich Dengel, M.D. and George Belhobek, M.D., for organizing our 61st Annual Meeting held on April 28th in Cleveland. This meeting was a departure from our prior academic meetings and emphasized political and economic issues. Topics included Compliance Issues, Physician Contracting, and Government and Hospital Relations. Most importantly we were given an opportunity to discuss these and other issues with fellow radiologists and radiology business managers throughout the state. Those in attendance were so enamored with this new meeting format that the Executive Council voted to continue this for next year in Cincinnati in conjunction with the Radiology Business Managers Association Annual Meeting.
Daniel Singer
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