Members Present: Drs. Louis Barich, Louis Brockmeier, Donald Casey, Brett Coldiron, Edouard Feghali, Z. Charles Fixler, David Floering, Frank Froehlich, Gregory Gerber, Blair Harkness, Molly Katz, Rajiv Patel, Pramod Rege, Marvin Rorick, William Sawyer and Ron Zile

OSMA Staff: Mike Ware

Staff Present: Ms. Nancy Coomer

Dr. Marvin Rorick, First District Councilor, called the meeting to order. Introductions were made.

Dr. Katz:
– encouraged everyone to check out the OSMA’s new web site;
– noted that Nancy Nielson, MD, AMA Speaker of the House, would be addressing the OSMA House of Delegates, possibly at the opening session on Saturday morning;
– asked everyone to consider attending the OSMA Day at the Legislature on Tuesday, March 8, 11 am until 4 pm, at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

Mike Ware:
– stressed the importance of OSMA PAC membership;
– briefly reviewed his handout, 2004 Legislative Recap;
– noted 2005 national priority issues include national medical liability reform and Medicare/Medicaid reauthorization; – indicated the current state focus is the state budget.

– The 2005 OSMA Annual Meeting will be held May 20-22 at the Cleveland InterContinental Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. The meeting schedule was not yet available and will be reviewed at the next Delegation meeting.
– Dr. Brockmeier noted that the OMSS educational session will be held on Friday, May 20, noon-4 pm and speakers are as follows: John C. Nelson, MD, AMA President; John Wiegand, Esq., Federal Trade Commission, speaking on collective bargaining; and Michael D. Parkinson, MD, MPH, speaking on health savings accounts. More information is forthcoming.

Dr. Robyn Chatman expressed her interest in running for an open AM Alternate Delegate position.

Eight resolutions were presented for the Delegation’s consideration: Lower Health Care Costs by Discontinuing Use of Inflationary Drug Coupons and Lower Health Care Costs by Decreasing the Waste of Medicines and Money Through More Appropriate Refill Co-Pay Policy (Dr. Barich); Proposed Amendment to E-5.01 Advertising and Managed Care Organization, Opposition to Restrictions on Which Specialties Can Bill for Pathology Services, and Slow CPT Information Services (Dr. Coldiron); Save 100,000 Lives (Dr. Casey); Physician Education for Patient Safety (Dr. Floering); and Quality Care Criteria Measurement (Dr. Kade). Each was discussed, several changes suggested, and it was recommended that they all be submitted from the First District. Deadline for submission of resolutions to OSMA is March 22.

A list of First District Delegation members was included in the agenda for information only.

The next meeting of the Delegation was scheduled for Tuesday, April 26; several locations were suggested including Jag’s, Encore Café, and the Iron Horse Inn.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:15 pm.