Virginia Chapter, AAP Board Meeting
Wyndham Virginia Beach - July 19, 2013 ~ 4:00 PM
I.
Call to Order and Introductions
Dr. Biff Rees called the meeting to order at 4:05 PM and made introductions of the
members in attendance and on the conference phone.
Members in attendance: Drs. Sam Bartle, Sandy Chung, CW Gowen, Robert
Gunther, Barbara Kahler, Linda Meloy, William Moskowitz, Kristina Powell, Helen
Ragazzi, Biff Rees, Natasha Sriraman, John Unkel,
Staff in attendance: Jane Davis, Executive Director and Aimee Seibert, Chapter
Lobbyist.
II.
Review of Minutes
Motion seconded and approved that the minutes of the April 5 Board meeting to
be approved as submitted. Drs. Chung, Powell Moskowitz agreed to review
minutes for the current meeting.
III.
Strategy Plan review
A. Advance Child Health (30 mins)
 Ensure Fair Payment
 Pediatric Council – Dr. Ted Abernathy reported that he is still trying to restructure
the Council to mini councils that involve a small group of members to work
exclusively with one carrier. Because of the many vacations a meeting does not
seem possible this summer so the Council now plans a fall meeting of the entire
council to develop and execute this plan.
 Increase Advocacy for Children
Advocacy Report – Dr. Diane Pappas advised Pediatric Day at the General Assembly 2014 is
planned for Thursday, January 30, 2014 in Richmond. Please mark your calendars to attend
And spread the word!
Legislative Report – Aimee Siebert updated the Board on the Advocacy issues:
Items for discussion:
 National AAP Legislative Conference Update
 2013 PAC Giving (Discussed in Finance Committee Report)
 2013 Elections
 June 25th MSV Legislative Committee Meeting
 Medicaid Innovation and Reform Committee
 VA AAP Co-Sponsoring Gubernatorial Candidate Forum on Mental Health
 Medicaid Primary Care Increase Update
 2014 Legislative Priorities
National AAP Legislative Conference Update
DR Bowman and Ragazzi attended the annual AAP Legislative conference
Highlighted issue was Gun Violence Prevention:
o Support strong gun safety legislation (assault weapons ban, background checks,
anti-trafficking laws, safe firearm storage)
o Increase federal research funding to understand causes and effective prevention
strategies
o Ensure access to mental health screening and services
Proposal to Board to write letter of support (Aimee to draft) to Hope, Edwards,
Morrissey, McEachin and Brink- all of whom brought forth bills this past legislative
session that are aligned with the AAP position (voluntary background check, limit
rounds, prohibit sales, licensing restrictions, etc.) See attached letters. The board
approved sending the letters of support
2013 Elections
 Primaries were held in June. Dr. Northam won the Democratic nomination for
Lieutenant Governor; two Republican incumbent Delegates- May and Sherwoodwere defeated by intraparty primary challengers. Suggest we have a discussion about
a VA AAP endorsement of Dr. Northam as the Lt. Governor candidate.
June 25th MSV Legislative Committee Meeting
The Medical Society of Virginia’s legislative committee met on June 25th to determine
their legislative priorities. Two issues of interest to VA AAP were on the agendaconcussion awareness and banning the use of tanning beds for minors younger than 18.
Both were given a one- the highest priority and recommended to be top MSV priorities
for the 2014 session. The full Board will meet and decide in September.
Medicaid Innovation and Reform Committee
The “super committee” designated to make the decision about Medicaid expansion and
reform met for the first time in June for essentially an organizational meeting where they
heard from DMAS about the Medicaid program. It is very clear to all the attendees that
the path to expansion will be long and is currently very undefined- no clear idea on how
much reform needs to be done, the savings that have to happen, etc. Stay tuned!
VA AAP Co-Sponsoring Gubernatorial Candidate Forum on Mental Health
VA AAP is co-sponsoring a gubernatorial candidate forum organized by Voices of
Virginia: When: Monday, August 5th, 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Location: Oates Theater at Collegiate School, Richmond, Virginia
Purpose to make mental health issues a policy priority during the 2013 election season,
raise public awareness about the importance of mental health for Virginians of all ages,
and give the candidates a public forum to talk about their policy platform for mental
health issues. We’d love to have at least TEN pediatricians in attendance: People are
encouraged but not required to register; here’s the online registration link:
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e7pdnr6h747fc66b&llr=9j
hggocab
Medicaid Primary Care Increase Update
The first primary care increase quarterly payment, covering the first six months (back to
January) will be made July 19 by DMAS for the fee-for-service Medicaid patients.
MCO Primary Care Rate Increase Payments
While DMAS has paid the MCOs their supplemental capitation payments on July 5th,
they each have different methods and timing for payments to the eligible
physicians. Three plans are making claim payments at the higher rates and are adjusting
any claims paid earlier. Three plans are doing quarterly lump sum payments similar to
DMAS. Some plans will start making payments in July and all plans will be making
some payments by the end of August. Some of the retroactive payments, however, will
not be completely paid (or adjusted) until later. See
http://www.dmas.virginia.gov/Content_atchs/mc/mc-pcpi2.pdf for a summary for each
plan.
Physicians Certified by the American Board of Allergy and Immunology (ABAI)
DMAS has posted information that physicians certified by the ABAI should be
considered subspecialists of internal medicine or pediatrics and eligible to attest for
purposes of receiving the higher primary care rate increase. DMAS does not expect a
large number of attestations based on this, but they will require special treatment since
DMAS is going to waive the March 31 deadline and give these physicians until the end of
September to attest and still receive higher payments for services furnished back to
January 1. If you want to include something in your communication based on the DMAS
notice, we would appreciate it. As we discussed previously, DMAS will also do a
targeted mailing to allergist and immunologists using the MSV mailing list and a list of
physicians DMAS has identified from claims.
More information: https://www.virginiamedicaid.dmas.virginia.gov/wps/portal
2014 Legislative Priorities
As of now, our three priorities for the 2014 legislative session are the following:
 Banning smoking in cars when children are present; we are working with coalition
partners to raise public awareness around this issue and to ensure legislation is
proposed again in 2014. Delegate Terry Kilgore has agreed to patron the bill.
 Banning all minors under 18 from using tanning beds; we are working with the
American Cancer Society on this and Delegate Loupassi has agreed to patron the bill.
 Concussions; We are working with the family physicians, athletic trainers and
physical therapists to propose legislation that will require stricter concussion
guidelines for after-school groups using public school facilities.
Child Abuse Committee Report – no report
B. Member Value
HIT Committee Dr. Sandy Chung advised stats on website, Facebook and twitter visits.
Website Analytics –
259 unique visitors
>1000 page views
Average visit 3 minutes
Pages viewed the most: Home Page (280 views), Obesity Toolkit (67 views (does not
include Facebook views)), Members Login (66 views), Calendar (53 views), Chapter
news (36 views), Asthma Toolkit (34 views)
Most time spent on Obesity Toolkit (age 9 min) and Asthma Toolkit (age 8 min)
Facebook
193 likes, reaching >900 people with posts this past week!
The people who “like’ us are located mostly in Virginia Beach (34), Roanoke (18),
Richmond (18), Chesapeake (10), and Charlottesville (6).
79.8% Female, 18.1% Male.
Twitter
42 followers. Not much activity Aimee needs to secure password.
Medical Society of Virginia Annual Meeting
Dr. Sandy Chung will be the Virginia Chapter delegate to the Medical Society of Virginia
Annual Meeting in Williamsburg at the Williamsburg Lodge on October 24 – 27, 2013.
Also, again this year we will have a Pediatric Breakfast on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. on
Saturday, October 26, 2013.
Chapter Awards
The board nominated and voted to give the VA Chapter Child Advocate Award to Delegate Tag
Greason for his many contributions to the children. The award will be given at the Pediatrics in
Williamsburg Conference during the VA-AAP Membership luncheon.
IV. Member Services
Young Physician – no report
NCE Suite – Dr. Rees has reserved a suite at the Peabody Orlando from October 25 - 27 – to be
used as a recruitment tool.
V. Financial
 Quarterly Report on Chapter Finances
Dr. Bartle gave the quarterly report on Chapter Finances. The Chapter is financially
sound, with a balance of $225,573.76 ($24,731.05 checking plus $200,842.71 in
Reserve) as of the end of June 2013. He advised that overall year-to-date expenses
are within budget.
Dr. Bartle advised that the finance committee decided after much discussion to
recommend to the Board to consider making a contribution in the amount of $750 for
Welcome Bags for the Membership Committee, $5,000 to Medical Home Plus,
$2,000 to VOICES, 10,000 to Reach Out and Read, $1,500 to Children’s Advocacy
Center,. The total nonpolitical contributions add up to $22,500.00 (see attached
sheet).
The Finance Committee recommends to the chapter board to take funds out of
American Century $10,000 and Lord Abbott Bond Debenture $6,700 move to
operating fund to balance the budget ($14,636.19 overage)
Political Contributions
Aimee Seibert, Chapter Lobbyist, presented to the Finance Committee the 2013
Proposed Giving Schedule (attached). The Finance Committee reviewed the budget
and made a motion to accept the proposed political contributions of $7,250.
The Committee drafted the 2013-2014 budget which was presented to the Board for
approval.
Motion seconded and the board voted unanimously to approve the proposed budget as
presented including chapter contributions and legislative contributions.
VI. Internal Processes
 AAP President-elect candidates
The AAP National Nominating Committee has named Thomas Tryon, MD, FAAP, and
Sandra Hassink, MD, FAAP, as candidates for AAP President-elect. The election will
take place from October 24 – 30 during NCE.
District IV Chairperson Candidates
Running for the Vice Chairman for District IV is our very own William Moskowitz, MD,
FAAP and Jane Foy, MD, FAAP from North Carolina.
VII. Learning and Growth (15 mins)
 PROs Update – Barbara Kahler, MD advised that there were lots of projects are in the
works.
 PROS will be meeting during the NCE in October.
 EMS-C Report
Currently rolling out EPC course to assist rural hospitals and pre-hospital providers
provide better Pediatric care. Also discussion revolved around Epi –Pen legislation
and its implementation. A Representative from DSS reviewed the most recent
Pediatric mortality report.
Other Business
The meeting was adjourned at 5:45 p.m.