In this important election year, more than 55 neurosurgeons from across the country participated in an event especially designed to teach neurosurgeons how to influence the political process.
The Leibrock Leadership Development Conference, presented by the Council of State Neurosurgical Societies July 18-20 in Washington, D.C., readied neurosurgeons for the final day’s journey to Capitol Hill. The message neurosurgeons delivered to their senators and representatives or their health aides: The medical liability crisis must be effectively addressed by federal legislation because it is creating a hostile environment in which physicians must practice and it is negatively affecting patients’ access to care. Their individual messages were bolstered by compelling data from recent surveys, which suggest:
- 66 percent of neurosurgeons are limiting their services because of rising liability insurance premiums or risk of a lawsuit.
- 37 percent of neurosurgeons have altered their emergency or trauma call coverage because of liability concerns.
- More than 50 percent of neurosurgeons have altered their treatment protocols-for example by ordering more tests-because of liability concerns.
The conference opened with a half-day coding and reimbursement course, run by Sam Hassenbusch, MD, and Greg Przybylski, MD, which featured an overview of the processes that lead to the development of new Current Procedural Terminology codes and assigns them values. Other speakers and topics included Jim Bean, MD, on the new interpretive guidelines for the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act; Stan Pelofsky, MD, on physician ownership of specialty hospitals; and Michael DeMane, chief executive officer of Medtronic Sofamor Danek and Jeffrey Segal, president of the Medical Justice Services, on medical liability from. The day concluded with Stanley Fronczak, MD, and Robert Gillen, JD, presenting a course on legal strategies for handling assets.
The next day’s program tackled medical liability reform. Dr. Bean and Katie Orrico, JD, reviewed progress of the Protect Patient Now campaign for federal medical liability reform, followed by Peter Carmel, MD, a member of the American Medical Association’s Board of Trustees, who discussed the AMA’s approach to liability reform. Then Chuck Todd and Vaughn Ververs of “The Hotline” provided an insightful review of all the major political campaigns around the country, including how the contenders vote, how campaigns are funded, and how the campaigns are expected to play out. This was followed by a report from Charles S. Trump, House minority leader for West Virginia, who related that the medical liability crisis had caused physicians to flee the state, necessitating statewide reform.
That afternoon, Patrick McCabe of GYMR Public Relations spoke about how to effectively take the medical liability crisis story to the media. He was very informative about which strategies might garner support versus those that might cause a backlash. Stephen Northrop, the health policy adviser for Sen. Michael Enzi who serves on the U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, spoke of alternative legislative proposals for medical liability reform.
Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois discussed how to get the liability reform message home to the constituents. He spoke of a tragic case in the Chicago area in which a schoolboy ran into a wall while playing and suffered an epidural hematoma. The boy was taken to the local emergency room, which no longer had neurosurgical coverage for intracranial emergencies. Apparently the child herniated while waiting for helicopter transport to another facility and now has significant impairments. Illinois, a major crisis state, now has no neurosurgeons practicing south of Springfield in the state. Of those in the Chicago area, the vast majority have now given up their intracranial privileges, leaving many of the local hospitals short staffed for trauma coverage.
Michael C. Burgess, an obstetrician who left medical practice to become a representative for Texas, spoke about what it will take in the upcoming presidential election to pass federal medical liability reform legislation.
Just before heading to the Hill on Tuesday, participants held a breakfast conference with Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska to discuss strategies for building a bipartisan consensus on federal reform legislation.
In all, the Leibrock Leadership Development Conference was a success. Attendance by members of the Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons strengthened the audience, and the support of exhibitors greatly added to the meeting’s positive outcome. Kudos go to Dr. Leibrock, Gary Bloomgarten, MD, Pat Jacobs, MD, and Fernando Diaz, MD, members of the conference development committee and the AANS/CNS Washington Office staff for putting together an all-star symposium.
Frederick Boop, MD, is chair of the Council of the State Neurosurgical Societies.
CSNS information is available at www.csnsonline.org.