Please take the time to renew your Maricopa County Medical Society membership. You can do so by using the online portal (member ID# is required) or calling the MCMS membership office at 602-252-2015 and select option zero ("0"). Thank you!

The Maricopa County Medical Society Alliance is an association of Physician and PIT spouses / life partners that joined together to promote health related community services, and education and social activities as part of a network that spans thousands of counties throughout the nation. They support members from medical school through advanced training; from the start of active practice to retirement. Several events are planned for the coming months:

They also have a on Facebook page listed as a Group under Maricopa County Medical Society Alliance. While you are there send a "join" request!

For further information please contact: Mindie N. Factor, MCMSA President, mnfactor1@aol.com

By Angela Gonzales, Phoenix Business Journal
Originally posted Dec. 1, 2015

Glendale-based Total Transit Inc., which operates Discount Cab, has teamed up with a San Diego technology team to create an app-based transportation firm targeting the healthcare industry.

Called Veyo Logistics, the new company is looking to hire 1,200 driving partners in the Phoenix metro by the end of the year for a January launch.

Josh Komenda, president and principal of Veyo, said he's had an overwhelming response to his driver recruitment initiative, providing CPR, first aid patient privacy training for drivers, who are all independent contractors.

As the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) in your state, Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG) is available to assist primary care practice settings in increasing the identification of persons with depression and/or alcohol use disorder.

For more information, contact: Emilie Sundie, MSCIS, PMP 602-315-2589 or esundie@hsag.com

Download the informational flyer >>

By Angela Gonzales, Phoenix Business Journal
Orginally posted Dec. 8, 2015

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona and Abrazo Community Health Network are in a contract dispute over how much the Phoenix-based insurer will reimburse the medical providers for services in the Phoenix and Tucson areas next year.

If they can't hammer out a deal by Dec. 31, Abrazo will be out of the BCBS network on Jan. 1.

Contract negotiations originally began falling apart with Carondelet Health Network in Pima County. That Tucson-based health system is now owned jointly by Dignity Health, Ascension Health and Tenet Healthcare Corp., which owns the Abrazo health system in Arizona.

And now, all of the Abrazo network is in jeopardy, even though they have been negotiating since February.

By Angela Gonzales, Phoenix Business Journal

Originally published Dec. 2, 2015

Arizona's four largest health systems - which left the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association several years ago - have formed an alliance to advocate the state Legislature on issues pertinent to the healthcare industry.

Called the Health System Alliance of Arizona, the new advocacy organization represents 65,000 employees of Banner Health, Dignity Health, HonorHealth and Tenet Healthcare Corp. in Arizona.

Jennifer Carusetta has been tapped to serve as HSAA's executive director. She has held high-level positions in Arizona state government, most recently as the lead legislative liaison at the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's version of Medicaid based on a managed care model.

Banner Health President and CEO Peter Fine will serve as HSAA's first chairman.

The four member health systems represent all segments of an industry that comprises nearly 20 percent of Arizona's economy, including physicians, nurses, labs, surgical centers, pharmacies, insurance plans, rehabilitation centers, home health and academic medicine.

How stressful is medical training? So bad that in a class encouraging medical students to express emotion by drawing

Trey Banbury via JAMA

comics, nearly half depicted their supervisors as monsters.

"In their attempts to make meaning of medical training through images and words, students imagined the workplace as dank dungeons; portrayed patients as ghosts that haunted physicians who had treated them impersonally; represented supervising physicians as fiendish, foul-mouthed monsters; and depicted themselves as sleep-deprived zombies walking through barren post-apocalyptic landscapes," according to a new article in the Journal of the American Medical Association written by Daniel R. George and Dr. Michael Green, who teach the "Comics in Medicine" class at Penn State College of Medicine.