Government agencies establish reporting requirements and compliance structures. Insurance companies increasingly determine when treatments may proceed and under what conditions. Large, consolidated hospital systems often dictate operational and productivity expectations. Private equity ownership can introduce financial priorities into medical decision-making. Each may have legitimate goals, yet collectively they can create an environment in which physicians feel they have diminishing influence over the care they are ultimately responsible for delivering.
Across our state, physicians describe a growing sense that decisions affecting patient care are increasingly dictated outside the physician-patient relationship. Prior authorization requirements delay treatment. Documentation burdens consume hours that should be spent with patients. Payment structures reward measured activity over meaningful outcomes. Independent dispute resolution processes face repeated pressure. Government programs continue to expand obligations while reimbursement often fails to reflect the realities of providing care.
Growing workforce challenges have led to calls for expanding independent practice models for non-physician providers. Every member of the healthcare team plays an important role and contributes meaningfully to patient care. But addressing access challenges should not mean reducing standards or creating different expectations of care. Patients deserve access to physician-led care supported by the full healthcare team, not different levels of medical expertise based upon circumstance.
The founders of our nation understood that effective governance depends upon balancing accountability with autonomy and ensuring that those closest to any situation, those with the specific knowledge, have a voice. That principle is just as important in healthcare. When policy is developed without meaningful physician input, unintended consequences often follow. Delays in care increase. Independent practices disappear. Physician burnout accelerates. Access deteriorates. Patients ultimately bear the cost.
This is why organized medicine matters.
For generations, the Medical Society of the State of New York has served as the collective voice of physicians advocating not only for physicians, but for our patients and the integrity of their care. Through legislative advocacy, policy development, and engagement with state leaders, MSSNY will work to reduce prior authorization burdens, preserve the fair dispute resolution process, support physician-led teams, maintain liability protections, and ensure that physicians remain central to healthcare reform. Additionally, MSSNY will strive to preserve physician choices regarding practice model and patient choices regarding access to care by advocating for and supporting our professional colleagues in both independent practice and employed models. Our mission and dedication to our profession remain unchanged.
To help ensure physicians continue to have a meaningful voice in the policies shaping patient care, we encourage you to support MSSNYPAC and strengthen medicine’s advocacy in Albany.
As we commemorate 250 years since the birth of our nation, perhaps one lesson remains especially relevant: lasting progress occurs not when decisions are made for people, but when they are made with them.
All the best,
Mark J. Adams, MD, MBA, FACR
MSSNY President
