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12/20/2022

A Time to Give Thanks—OSMA CEO's Closing Point on 2022

 


During this holiday season, hopefully you have been able or will be enjoying time with family and friends. As I reflect back on 2022, I am proud of the organization’s focus and dedication to the profession and all individual physicians in Ohio.

In May, we launched The Well-being CARE Service at www.wellbeingcare.org. This service provides physicians and all healthcare workers with a simple, anonymous, no cost, online personal assessment, and if they want, a follow up interaction with a trained counselor and referral to vetted resources. Since launching the service, we have heard from numerous doctors about the stigma that surrounds any discussion or focus on mental health. As an organization and profession, we must do all we can to overcome this. The Well-being CARE Service allows us to keep having discussions about mental health and in 2023, we plan to expand our efforts to publicize the Service across the entire state in all practice settings.

In addition to launching our well-being service, in 2023, we will be launching a proactive advocacy effort to address the administrative burden in medicine that we know is one of the leading causes of burnout and stress in medicine. Specifically, in early next year, we will be introducing legislation to reform prior authorization in Ohio that will benefit physicians and patients. We will also be proposing legislation to address other payer related challenges like down coding, take backs, etc. We will need all of our members to be engaged in this process.

In 2022, we also continued to focus on education as an integral part of professional development. As part of every membership moving forward, members will receive access to a series of educational courses on compliance, regulations, business support etc. Most include CME – and all are FREE as part of OSMA membership. Additionally, members approached us this year wanting to become more involved in advocacy. In response, this fall, we provided a virtual advocacy boot camp with an overview of how the policymaking process works in Ohio and how physicians can get involved. This resource was recorded and is available for members to review at any time. We also plan on offering a similar program in-person at our 2023 annual meeting.

We also started two new programs to support our members in training as they start their professional journey. The Summer Scholars Program provides stipends to medical students between year one and two to support those pursuing unfunded internships – in 2022 the OSMA Foundation was able to support six students from programs across the state. We also launched a new mentorship program connecting those in the early stages of their career with more experienced physicians.

Our efforts to support the profession are ongoing, and we hope that in 2023, we will continue to make an impact. From the OSMA staff and leadership: thank you again for your support and all that you do -and we wish all OSMA members and their families and staff a healthy holiday season and prosperous new year!

Thank you,

Todd Baker
OSMA CEO

 


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