Colorado Medical Society

WHEREAS, the Colorado Medical Society has established certain programs to benefit its members, and

WHEREAS, many of these programs pertain to subjects of general interest to all Colorado Medical Society members and their practices, and

WHEREAS, one of these programs is the Quarterly Assembly of Payers, and

WHEREAS, the Quarterly Assembly of Payers is a forum of discussion regarding claims submission issues, insurance company practices, and physician practice management issues, many of which are of great interest to all Colorado physicians, and

WHEREAS, the Quarterly Assembly of Payers has been held exclusively in the Front Range cities of Colorado and physical attendance to participants to this point has been required, and no recordings, videotapes, or other media recordings have been made available to the general membership from these meetings, and

WHEREAS, technology now allows easily high quality recordings to be made cheaply, and technology also allows one-way or two-way real time video proceedings of meetings to be widely distributed over the internet at very low expense, and that most physicians (including rural physicians) have internet access sufficient to view or participate in one- or two-way internet-based videoconferencing, and

WHEREAS, urban physicians of the Front Range or their staff find it a minor inconvenience to attend meetings on the Front Range of Colorado, but to rural or frontier physicians and staff in Colorado, attendance often requires at least one and more full days of travel and lodging, with attendant expenses, to attend meetings within Front Range cities of Colorado, and

WHEREAS, travel nature by rural Colorado physicians requires closing their offices or restricting their hours for the time necessary, which in turn, presents an uncomfortable inconvenience for both them and their patients, and this inconvenience is often why many rural physician will not attend meetings as often as their Front Range colleagues, and

WHEREAS, this same inconvenience and expense of office closure may not exist for more urban colleagues in closer proximity to the meetings, and

WHEREAS, the health insurance companies addressed by the Quarterly Assembly of Payers offer their products throughout the urban and rural areas of the state, and rural practices should enjoy the same educational experiences available regarding these companies via the Quarterly Assembly of Payers meetings as their urban counterparts, therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the Colorado Medical Society develop a program to expand the ability of rural physicians to participate in meetings of general interest without requiring rural physicians to leave their communities to attend meetings. This program would include additional methods of distributing information produced at or by the meeting to include but not be limited to the following: a) videotaping the proceedings to be made available for sale after the meeting has ended; b) transcribing the proceedings to be made available for sale after the proceedings have ended; and c) offering one or two way live real time videoconferencing capability with rural practices in Colorado (likely most cheaply done over a secure internet access) willing to sponsor a site and to share in the expenses of the project.

FISCAL IMPACT: $4,000-$10,000