UBMD

The UBMD management council is working through a process of consultation and approval for a new set of corporate bylaws, the operating rules for the proposed new corporate structure for UB’s faculty practice plans.

The proposed bylaws were drafted by a bylaws committee chaired by Steven Dubovsky, who is also president of the management council. They were proposed to the management council at its August meeting and unanimously approved at its September meeting. However, because there were fewer than two-thirds of the membership in attendance at that meeting, final approval will require the unanimous written consent of all members. In the meantime, the bylaws were submitted for review to the Faculty Practice Management Plan Governing Board. William P. Dillon, president of the governing board and an ex-officio member of the UBMD management council, reported to the council at its November meeting that the board had received a letter from the labor relations specialist who has been observing the proposed corporate reorganization on behalf of union interests. The letter recommended changes in the bylaws to clarify the governing board’s authority over the UBMD management council.

The management council agreed to revise the bylaws to accommodate the suggestions.

It was also recommended at that meeting that the SUNY chancellor’s office preview the bylaws.

Finally, the management council agreed to circulate the proposed bylaws to the individual practice plans for presentation at their annual meetings in January.

EMR status, contract negotiations and other news

In other news from the management council, the IT committee reported in September that it had selected Allscripts as the preferred EMR vendor for UBMD. The final choice came after a year-long process that considered five vendors. The choice between two finalists was influenced by recommendations from local practices, including UBMD’s Academic Medicine Services and the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The management council noted that UBMD’s GE/IDX practice management system should be implemented before an EMR system can be implemented in each practice. At the November management council meeting, Steven Dubovsky announced that the project for implementation of the practice management system and the EMR had been scaled back to an initial group of six practices that have indicated a desire to participate. These are internal medicine, pediatrics, rehabilitation medicine, neurology, ophthalmology, and surgery.

The cost of financing the implementation of an EMR will be detailed and presented to the chief financial officers of the six practices. The practices will then inform the management council whether they wish to proceed and whether they will require a loan to finance the implementation. The management council’s finance committee is developing a financing plan for the project, including the proposal of a loan pool to be funded by UBMD practice plans.

On another matter, the management council sought advice this summer from outside counsel on whether joint contract negotiation by member practice plans in UBMD would have the potential to violate antitrust laws. The attorney determined that joint contract negotiations by UBMD as a conglomeration of separate practice corporations is legal. In September, the management council asked Teresa Quattrin (interim chair of Pediatrics), who chairs the contracts committee, to convene the committee and develop procedures for joint contract negotiations.

In November, Quattrin reported that the committee had reviewed data requested from the practices and was in the process of requesting additional data. She also reported that the committee wants to make UBMD better known to payers they will be negotiating with.

In September the management council heard a proposal from Dave Ellis (Emergency Medicine) that UBMD respond to an opportunity to provide telemedicine services to the Seneca Nation. Ellis was made chair of an ad hoc committee to pursue the opportunity.

At the November meeting, Steven Dubovsky informed the management council that HEALTHeLINK, the information network consortium of local hospitals and insurers, had invited UBMD to join a select group of physicians, pharmacies and hospitals to participate in the pilot phase of a system for exchanging clinical information among different IT systems that would establish communication links with physician practices independent of EMRs in the practices.

—Judson Mead