Ensuring Transparency for patients, employers, and physicians. The LSMS continues to advocate for fair contracting in the regulated insurance market. We will continue to ght against e orts to interfere with the physicians’ right to contract and protect the right of physicians to seek payment for the services they render. The LSMS also works hard to provide more standardization when dealing with health plans, such as standardizing prior authorization forms for prescription drugs. We believe strongly that as the hassle factor is decreased and physicians can spend more time treating patients, overall outcomes improve. In recent years, surprise billing has been a big part of o ered legislation. Physicians hear daily about patients’ problems with insurance and believe that any surprise billing conversation must include the following: increased transparency for patients to understand their insurance, network adequacy requirements that ensure patients can actually receive needed care and remain in-network, and dispute resolution mechanisms that recognize who the dispute is between and do not create an arti cial rate. Additionally, insurance is big business and they are in business to make money. Stronger regulation on how a claim is denied and what avenues patients have would be a welcomed relief to both patients and providers. Impact of prescriptions. Pharmacists and medication play a critical role in healthcare. A strong working relationship between pharmacists and physicians can help to optimize patient care. In recent years, these relationships have been stressed due to insurance-forced prior authorizations which make it di cult for a physician to treat patients and frustrating for a pharmacist to e ciently complete their role. The back and forth volley that both are forced into PRESERVING THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE Physicians are the best advocates for their patients. LSMS works tirelessly to defend physician-led medicine because the knowledge, skills, and experience that fully-trained physicians o er is unequalled. Ensuring that health care professionals’ scope of practice is re ective of the training and education they have is essential to protecting the lives of adults and children from unsafe medical practices. The members of the LSMS are con dent that state leaders and lawmakers —with input from patients, healthcare providers, employers, taxpayers, and others —can develop comprehensive solutions that are bene cial for patients and taxpayers. Louisiana has a unique opportunity to provide its most vulnerable patients with access to quality health care and the LSMS stands at the ready, as it has since 1878, to assist the administration and lawmakers during this most challenging time.
does not enhance care collaboration. Additionally, the punitive reaction against both physician and pharmacist in the very real opioid epidemic has created further tensions. Many patients need medications to control pain at various times in life, such as post-surgery and for aging issues. When a physician writes a prescription, there is a reasonable expectation that it will be lled. A pharmacist has two options: ll the prescription or don’t ll the prescription. They are not legally allowed to change the medication prescribed or to short- ll it without physician approval. With today’s enforcement of opioid restrictions, more pharmacists are choosing not to ll the prescription at all, leaving patients in pain and without options. LSMS continues to support legislation that works to repair physician-pharmacist relationships and control an insurance companies’ ability to practice medicine. Physicians prescribe medications based on scienti c research which targets the medication to the diagnosis and the amount appropriate to provide a patient based on a number of factors – including interactions with other drugs. This is what gives physicians cause for concern in the debate for medical cannabis. To date, there has been no long-term research that scienti cally shows health bene ts of cannabis or the impact to a patient already on a drug regimen. LSMS encourages more research to identify the health bene ts associated with the use of therapeutic cannabis. Reducing red tape, regulations, and hassle. We need legislative solutions to cut through the red tape, regulations, andother unproductiveelements that donothing to improve quality and everything to interfere with physicians’ ability to practicemedicine e ciently and e ectively.
8 J LA MED SOC | VOL 172 | NO.1
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