DOCTOR, WHY DO YOU NEED MSSNY?
About The Medical Society of The State of NY
Welcome to the website of the Medical Society of the State of New York, representing the interests of patients and physicians in an ongoing effort to assure quality health care services for all New Yorkers.
The Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) is an organization of approximately 20,000 licensed physicians, medical residents, and medical students in New York State. Members participate in both the state society and in their local county medical societies.
MSSNY is a non-profit organization committed to representing the medical profession as a whole and advocating health related rights, responsibilities and issues. MSSNY strives to promote and maintain high standards in medical education and in the practice of medicine in an effort to ensure that quality medical care is available to the public.
MISSION STATEMENT
To advance the health of the residents of our State by promoting a favorable environment for medicine through advocacy, education, and professional community for New York State physicians.
To improve the health and well-being of our community through promoting wellness, fostering collaborative relationships, providing personal and professional development of physicians, and engaging in healthcare advocacy.
VISION STATEMENT
“The Medical Society of the State of New York shall be the leading professional organization uniting all physicians to promote excellent healthcare of the people of New York State.”
Whether you’re in independent practice or you work for a large group or institution, your future depends on a strong state medical society.
- MSSNY consistently quashes or modifies legislative proposals that would adversely impact your ability to deliver care to your patients.
- MSSNY consistently fights to assure that you, a trained physician – not insurance companies or government – determine the appropriate course of care for your patients’ conditions and circumstances.
- MSSNY helps you negotiate employment contracts that don’t leave you out on a limb after the initial honeymoon period ends.
- MSSNY provides information, education and insights to help you planfor the future and advance your career.
In the last few legislative sessions, we have faced an onslaught of proposals which would have adversely impacted the practice of medicine, and we achieved real and substantial victories:
Reduced administrative hassles by enacting legislation:
- to reduce credentialing delays and enable override of insurer step therapy protocols
- to reduce the need to obtain prior authorization when connected to services for which one was already granted
- to reduce the time for claims to be paid
- to require insurers to provide comprehensive data to demonstrate their compliance with mental health and substance abuse parity laws
Working together with affected specialty societies, our advocacy resulted in
- the defeat of proposals that would have significantly curtailed due process protections for all physicians against whom a complaint is
filed with OPMC - the defeat of proposals that would have imposed huge new costs on physicians who receive coverage through the Excess Medical Liability
Insurance Program
Our advocacy resulted in important public health achievements, including
- assuring that medical contraindications are the only valid exception to
- required immunizations
- raising the legal tobacco purchase age to 21
- preventing the sale of flavored vaping products
Our advocacy resulted in the defeat of proposals
- that would have imposed significant new requirements on physicians prior to prescribing any opioid medication and other practice mandates
- that would have expanded the scope of practice of numerous non-physician practitioners
- that could have raised your liability costs through changing loss allocation rules in malpractice cases involving multiple defendants
- that would have limited injured worker choice of physician in the Workers Compensation program
Recent Legislative Wins (2025)
- The $254 billion state budget excluded harmful proposals, including cost-shifts in Excess Medical Malpractice coverage, Medicaid appeals restrictions, and unsupervised physician assistant practice.
- Secured $50 million in increased Medicaid payments.
- Protected essential programs such as the Committee for Physicians’ Health.
- Successfully advanced bills promoting lung cancer screening coverage, reducing reporting requirements, hospital closure transparency, and physician safety in emergency departments.
- Working with allies to defeat dozens of bills to inappropriately expand scope of practice of various non-physicians.
