NBC News Wrongful Death Report Omits Access to Care Concerns

NBC News Wrongful Death Report Omits Access to Care Concerns

Colleagues:

NBC News ran a 3-minute, 34-second story on the wrongful death bill this week, in which they devoted a mere 12 seconds to the point that signing the bill into law will lead to higher health insurance premiums and liability costs for medical malpractice. My 3-second quote, “If you drive up the cost of liability insurance, you’re going to lose more physicians,” ran towards the end of the piece. The reporter neglected to include the rest of my quote, “When you lose physicians from New York, it’s going to increase the time for patients to see those doctors” from the video portion of the piece.

This news story exemplifies the challenge we have in convincing the Governor the importance of vetoing the wrongful death bill. The media focus for this legislation is often on addressing concerns from sympathetic grieving families, and not on the severe adverse impacts on all New Yorkers if this bill were to be signed into law. If she doesn’t hear from a critical mass of physicians and others—and she signs this new bill into law—the enormously increased cost of practicing medicine in our state will almost certainly drive countless physicians to leave the state or retire early, leaving many patients without the care they need—especially in underserved areas.

It is essential that every New York physician call or send an email to the Governor to remind her of the harm to patients’ access to care in communities around the state if this bill were to be signed. And please encourage your medical colleagues, friends, and families to contact the Governor and encourage another veto. She vetoed a substantially similar bill in January, but there is no guarantee she will take the same step again.

Send a letter to the governor here.  

Call the Governor’s office at 518-474-8390 # 3. Then press option 1 to leave a voicemail or option 2 to speak with a staff person in the Governor’s office: “I am Dr. ___ ___ requesting the Governor to Veto the Grieving Families Act.” 

Additionally, MSSNY has compiled talking points for you to use here.

Let’s do our part to encourage the Governor to veto this bill—not only for our physician colleagues but for the health and safety of all New Yorkers.

MSSNY at this Week’s AMA Interim Meeting

Our New York delegation to the AMA returned this week from the 2023 Interim Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates, which was held Nov. 10-14 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Our delegation met prior to the meeting to discuss resolutions on a wide variety of issues including fighting insurance hassles, stopping Medicare cuts to physician reimbursement, and promoting public health based on science. A complete rundown of the [ https://www.ama-assn.org/house-delegates/interim-meeting ] Business of the AMA 2023 House of Delegates Interim Meeting is available here.

In addition to participating in the reference committees and deliberations on the floor of the interim meeting, we had some changes to the New York delegation leadership. I want to extend a warm welcome to both the newly elected chair of the NY delegation to the AMA Dr Gregory Pinto and the newly elected vice chair of the NY delegation to the AMA Dr Louis Auguste. Dr Pinto has been a member of the NY delegation since 2018 and Dr Auguste has been a member of the NY delegation since 2019.

I want to thank outgoing NY Delegation Chair Dr Charles Rothberg, who served as chair of the NY delegation to the AMA since 2021 and as vice chair from 2015-2021. Dr Rothberg has been a member of the NY delegation since 2006 and a member of the AMA Ops committee since 2011. In addition, I want to thank outgoing NY Delegation to the AMA Vice Chair Dr Joseph Sellers, who served as vice chair since 2021. Dr Sellers has been a member of the delegation since 2013 and served as AMA Ops Committee Chair from 2021-2023.

Paul A. Pipia, MD
President
Medical Society of the State of New York