MSSNY Outlines Physician Priorities in Governor Hochul’s Proposed Budget for FY24

For Immediate Release

MSSNY Outlines Physician Priorities in Governor Hochul’s Proposed Budget for FY24

February 28, 2023, Westbury, NY—Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY) President-elect Paul Pipia, MD is presenting testimony today to the Joint Legislative Public Hearing for the 2023 Executive Budget Proposal on Health.  MSSNY advocates for more than 20,000 physicians practicing across New York State.

“While the Governor’s proposed Budget contains a number of important measures to help protect and enhance the ability of patients to continue to receive needed medical care from the physician of their choice, it also contains numerous items of concern that will adversely impact patient care”, said Dr. Pipia. MSSNY has submitted extensive written testimony but will highlight a range of its key issues in oral testimony.

First, MSSNY thanks Governor Hochul for proposing continued funding for several important programs, including:

• MSSNY’s Committee for Physicians Health (CPH) program, which is an essential program to help address the growing problem of physician burnout and is due to sunset this June.
• The Excess Medical Malpractice Insurance Program, which provides nearly 16,000 physicians with a supplemental layer of liability insurance coverage that would otherwise be unaffordable due to New York’s excessively high liability insurance costs, particularly as compared to every other state.
• Several proposals to help expand or at least maintain access to care in underserved areas, including Doctors Across New York State (DANYS), a vital physician loan repayment program that helps physicians offset the crushing financial burden from medical school, and other proposals to increase reimbursement for care received by patients insured by Medicaid and the Essential Plan.
• MSSNY strongly supports the proposed creation of a Health Insurance Guaranty Fund to protect against the enormous adverse consequences to patients and their physicians in the event of a health plan insolvency.  Every other state has a health guaranty fund to protect their consumers.

Conversely, there are several proposals which MSSNY urges removal from the final Budget:

• The perennial attempt to impose burdensome new prior authorization (PA) requirements on physicians writing prescriptions for their patients insured by the state’s Medicaid program. Physicians and their staff are already drowning in excessive paperwork and phone calls that are taking time away from patient care.  PA is also often a major barrier to patients receiving the most effective treatments prescribed by their physician.
• The heavy-handed proposal to require DOH approval, starting in 2024, for those private physician practices who wish to remain afloat by merging with other practices or through back-office support provided by management services organizations.  While 75 percent of physicians are employed, some wish to remain in independent practice to prevent external impediments to providing patient care.  This proposal would accelerate already excessive market power domination by certain health systems by essentially removing one avenue to remaining independent.
• MSSNY also strongly opposes Part W of the Health Budget bill, which would fundamentally restructure New York’s health care delivery system by enacting numerous measures to expand the scope of health care services delivered by non-physician health care providers.  MSSNY is deeply concerned that these Executive Budget proposals will adversely impact patient care by completely removing the important oversight and coordination that a physician provides, particularly as it relates to the ordering of diagnostic tests and the evaluation of the effectiveness of various prescription medications and treatments.

MSSNY looks forward to working with the Governor and legislature as they negotiate and finalize next year’s budget to ensure patients have full access to the best medical care in New York State.

Media Contact:
Roseann Raia | Manager, Communications
Medical Society of the State of New York
865 Merrick Avenue
Westbury, NY 11590
516.488.6100 x302 | [email protected]

Julie Vecchione
Vice President, Communications
Medical Society of the State of New York
865 Merrick Avenue
Westbury, NY 11590
516.488.6100 x340 | [email protected]