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Washoe County Medical Society

Group Health Insurance for WCMS Members and Affiliates

Stethoscope on health insurance form

Providing quality health insurance is one of the best ways to attract and retain great employees. Now members of our Washoe County Medical Association can do that at an even better cost.

Association Health Plans from Prominence have been designed exclusively for our organization membership. Medical practices with 2 – 50 employees can benefit from collective buying power, accessing the comprehensive health benefits and affordable premium rates typically offered to large employers. Your clinic is eligible for an Association Health Plan when all the physicians in your group are members of WCMS. 

WCMS 2023 Custom Benefit Guide

With an Association Health Insurance Plan you can:

  • OFFER comprehensive health coverage for enrolled members & dependents
  • ACCESS the region’s most loved doctors
  • ENROLL at any time regardless of any current health coverage - you don't have to wait for your traditional renewal period
  • SAVE up to 30% in premium costs compared to other options
  • SHARE those savings with employees at your practice!

Customized Plan Designs Offering Employee Choice

There are SEVEN different health plan options are available - practices can offer up to THREE different health plans, so employees have a choice when it comes to what is best for them.

 Association Health Plan Highlights:

  • Certain health plans include access to a national network for those employees who live, work or travel out-of-state.
  • All plans are open access, meaning you don’t need a referral to see a specialist.
  • All plans offer a $0 Teladoc telemedicine copay benefit for both medical and behavioral health.
  • The Prominence Provider Network includes many notable and board-certified physicians across the state, offering members excellent access to quality medical care.

 To Contact Prominence:

Visit www.prominencehealthplan.com/ahp and complete a short form or email Prominence at [email protected].

Need to Enroll in WCMS?

To join individually, or as a group, contact Wendy Rodriguez, [email protected] 775-825-0278, who will help you enroll and process multiple membership applications.

One Student’s Journey

This week the 3rd year medical students started a brand-new chapter in our medical journey with clerkships. I think I speak for all my classmates when I say we are experiencing a mixed bag of emotions ranging from excitement and eagerness to get our hands dirty, to a little bit of fear and nervousness of the unknown. The Class of 2024 has been divided up into different tracks of rotations with different schedules. Although we may not see each other as often as we did in the classroom, there is still a sense of comradery as we embark on this thrilling journey at the same time.

Alexis Wybrecht

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UNSOM Now Offers Online CMEs and CEUs

The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNSOM) now offers online CMEs and CEUs on the Nevada POLST program, which qualifies for 1 (CME ethics) credit. Nevada POLST is a medical order, defined by Nevada statute, to be offered to patients whose provider suspects that they may not survive another year. To learn the history, completion and legal implications of this program, you may register online at https://med.unr.edu/cme/cmeonlinelibrary/nv_polst.

The fee is $30. CEUs and CMEs are available to physicians, nurses, APRNs and PAs.
For additional information regarding Nevada POLST go to www.nevadapolst.org.
Sally Hardwick – 775-742-6766

CMEs and CEUs website

What if Nevada State Medical Association was not at the 2019 Legislative Session?

NV State Medical Assoc

NSMA has a core group of dedicated members who put in incredible effort during the last legislative session focusing on advocacy. Ask any of these folks about the value of NSMA and they will readily jump in with successes from 2019: our efforts to improve the opioid law to make the rules more patient and physician friendly, or to stop very bad legislation to unwind tort reform, or some of our public health successes. Those physicians who may be less “plugged in” to our daily activities often ask me what is the value of my membership in NSMA? What is it all for?

For those physicians and for each of us, it’s worth a pause to consider: What would have happened to Nevada physicians if the NSMA was not at the 2019 Legislative Session?

Without the NSMA in 2019, you as a Nevada physician would face:

  • Less Protection from frivolous lawsuits and weakening of KODIN
  • Continued frustration for patients and physicians dealing with opioid prescriptions
  • More mandated CME and yearly unfunded reporting requirements
  • Mandated E-prescribing of all medications starting in 2020, without exemptions or waivers
  • An outright ban on balance billing with no protection for physicians’ contracts or the market
  • Scope of practice creep including independence for Physicians Assistants
  • A moratorium on necessary surgeries for babies and children to correct hypospadias
  • No improvements for patient protections in insurance coverage
  • No increased transparency in insurance rental markets
  • No Maternal Mortality Review Committee to improve maternal mortality and morbidity

Fortunately, NSMA was there for you and your patients, working tirelessly to improve the practice of medicine in Nevada. In 2019, NSMA:

  • Prevented legislation from being introduced that would impact tort reform protections
  • Improved the process of opioid prescribing. (AB239)
  • Stopped harmful mandates including CMEs and reporting requirements, instead working with agencies to provide physicians who treat veterans with information to treat their patients.
  • Negotiated a mandate on e-prescribing to apply to only prescriptions for controlled substances, to be implement in 2021 in alignment with new federal rules and which allows for several exemptions and waivers to ensure the needs of patient care and physician practices are met. (AB310)
  • Negotiated a hard-fought deal on out of network billing in emergency situations that includes protections for existing contracts, dispute resolution system that considers the low dollar amounts of most out of network bills and establish a reporting requirement that ensures transparency in networks and contracting practices of insurers. (AB469)
    Prevented independence for PAs and began discussions to help PAs be successful in their practices within the practice team. These discussions will be on-going through the interim.
  • Prevented legislation that would ban necessary surgeries and began an important dialogue with proponents of the legislation to better communicate the clinical side to address their concerns of unnecessary surgeries.
  • Improved patient protections by protecting pre-existing conditions and requiring insurance agencies to register case contacts with the office of consumer health advocates to help patients navigate complicated insurance plans and sparse networks.
    Improved transparency by requiring insurers to disclose to physicians, those renting networks and provide physicians with the opportunity to decline to be a part of the rental arrangement.
  • Established Nevada’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee (AB169) to study instances of maternal mortality and morbidity and to make recommendations to improve the lives of Nevada mothers, and
  • Represented Nevada Physicians with dedication and integrity.

As we often say at NSMA about politics and policy making, “you’re either at the table or you’re on the menu.” NSMA was at the table for you in 2019, and with your help, we will continue to be there, protecting you and your patients for years to come.

Handling Subpoenas

Lyn Beggs

The great majority of requests for medical records that are received by healthcare providers are requests which included a properly executed HIPAA compliant release. However, on occasion a record request may be received through a subpoena duces tecum, a subpoena requesting only the production of documents, not testimony.

In Nevada the issuance of subpoenas is governed by the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure. Non-compliance with a properly issued and served subpoena could potentially result in the party issuing the subpoena seeking a court order for compliance with the subpoena and/or to find the non-responding party in contempt of court. While there are some legal challenges that may be raised to a subpoena, in general, compliance with the subpoena, to the extent legally allowed, is required. However, the disclosure of any records constituting Protected Health Information (“PHI”) must be done in compliance with HIPAA.
45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e) governs the disclosure of healthcare records pursuant to a subpoena. While the full contents of this section is too extensive to discuss here fully, two of the main points are summarized below.

  • “Covered entities” (which includes various healthcare provides) may disclose healthcare records pursuant to a subpoena if it receives satisfactory assurance (defined by 45 C.F.R. § 164.512(e)) that the party seeking the information has made reasonable efforts to notify the individual of the request or that the party has made reasonable efforts to request a qualified protective order.
  • If the covered entity does not receive satisfactory assurance from the party seeking the information, it may still disclose the records if the covered entity makes reasonable efforts to notify the individual whose records are being sought of the request or to seek a qualified protective order.

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Advocate For Physicians In Nevada

The Washoe County Medical Society (WCMS) and the Nevada State Medical Association (NSMA) advocate for physicians in the legislature and in front of regulatory boards such as the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners, Nevada Dental Board, Board of Osteopathic Medicine, State Board of Pharmacy and the State Board of Health, among others.

2016-2017 Regulatory Successes

  • Successfully defeated a Dental Board regulation which authorized Dentists and Dental hygienists to administer botulinum toxin (“botox”) and dermal filers.
  • Successfully defeated a Board of Health regulation which would require all providers of care to report actual or suspected cancer to the Cancer Registry or face a $25,000 fine.
  • Successfully lobbied to pass a new regulation that allows physician prescribers to delegate the transmission of an electronic prescription to a designated agent such as an RN, MA or scribe.
  • Successfully negotiated a Board of Medical Examiner’s regulation to provide common sense guidelines for physician oversight of a Medical Assistant.

2017 Legislative Successes

  • Secured Governor’s veto of an insurance company bill that would ban balance billing and cap fees for out of network health care services to the insurer’s economic advantage.
  • Negotiated with the Governor’s office to ensure new opioid legislation preserves clinical judgment and avoids draconian prescribing caps found in other states.
  • Improved a collaborative pharmacy bill to ensure that physician’s oversight and clinical judgment directs the patient care and to clarify in Nevada law that pharmacists do not diagnose.
  • Negotiated a common-sense revision to a proposed partnership bill which allows physicians and psychologists to form partnerships and still protects the tenants of Nevada’s implied prohibition of the corporate practice of medicine.
  • Defeated a measure which would criminalize and prohibit a physician from performing any procedure deemed to reassign the anatomical sex of a patient including relocating the urethral meatus, unless the child assented to the procedure.
  • Successfully removed physicians from a bill that would assess a “provider tax” on all physicians to leverage monies for Medicaid funding.
    Protected patients from unskilled application of botulinum toxin
    (“botox”) by limiting those licensed professionals who may administer and requiring that botox injections be administered only by licensed professionals in a medical facility.
  • Protected Ambulatory Surgical Centers from attempts by hospitals to force certain procedures into hospitals.
  • Secured Governor’s veto of a bill that would allow any Nevadan to purchase Medicaid without limitation.
  • Negotiated the reduction of proposed mandatory CME for suicide prevention from 3 CME units every two years to 2 CME units every four years.
  • Worked with Board of Medical Examiners to authorize their ability to take possession of records due to physician death or another incapacitation.