After COVID-19, LUGPA More Important Than Ever
Richard Gerald Harris, MD
President, LUGPA; UroPartners, Melrose Park, IL
[Rev Urol. 2020;22(2):75–76]
© 2020 MedReviews®, LLC
This is a truly extraordinary time in our world’s history. Every day when we turn on the television, we see medical professionals and first responders continue to risk their lives to care for the ill. On social media and in the newspaper, we read about “relatively healthy” individuals who describe their frightening personal experience with contracting and overcoming COVID-19. And of course, there are those who are not that lucky.
On the other hand, there is a remarkable rise in humanity and empathy. Young people are delivering food and prescriptions to older folks; grocery workers, delivery persons, and other essential workers continue to go to work every day to ensure others’ safety and welfare.
The news media is doing a great job of highlighting the small businesses that are hurting during the shelter-in-place ordinances. Local restaurants, hair stylists, musicians, fitness instructors, cab drivers, and movie theater workers are all hurting during this time, and the news media lets us know about it.
But when it comes to independent physician practices, most people just don’t get it. The misconception is that all doctors and nurses are super-busy right now and therefore are not mentioned with the list of other independent businesses that are hurting. When most people think of “doctors and nurses” (and other medical staff) they think of the big hospitals coping with a deluge of COVID-19 patients. When the average person hears about a medical worker who is temporarily out of work due to the COVID crisis, may well be confused. “How can a medical worker be put out of work at a time like this?” they ask. It would certainly help if the media made a point to highlight independent practices like independent urology groups.
The medical trade press is doing a much better job at covering this problem than the mainstream media. Publications like Urology Times, Medical Economics, STAT, Healthcare Finance News, RevCycle Intelligence, and FierceHealthcare have done an excellent job putting a spotlight on what we are going through. And LUGPA shares these stories with its members every Monday in an e-mail called Media Monitor.
Coverage by mainstream media has been less than stellar—with a few exceptions. In April, I was interviewed by ABC News for an article that talked about the practical and financial strains on independent physicians during this pandemic. At the time, independent practices were down by roughly 50% to 70% across the board, and many had to take extreme measures including laying off their staff members.
Medical Economics interviewed LUGPA board member Mara R. Holton, MD, in April about independent practices and the need for government support. She pointed out that the level of support needed by these practices would be highly variable. The needs of a two-physician practice and the needs of a 100+ specialty group are quite different. However, what most independent practices have in common is that they are cash-poor on an annualized basis due to tax laws. Most practices will not have large reserves of cash on hand to address a crisis of this magnitude.
On LUGPA’s COVID-19 information hub web page, we have collected valuable resources to help independent urology groups stay up to date on the fast-moving changes during the pandemic.
I am proud of the work done by LUGPA’s Health Policy and Political Affairs Committees. They sift through mountains of legislative data and distill the information you need to know. LUGPA has been keeping its members abreast of important CMS announcements about telehealth reimbursements, paycheck loan fact sheets, new rules federal regulation waivers, and more to keep our independent practices afloat.
I am particularly proud of our successes in Washington, DC. Initially, Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) money was going to be directed exclusively to hospital systems and their physicians, but LUGPA and its health policy team were instrumental in making sure that independent urologists and physicians were included. This was truly a historic accomplishment of LUGPA in preserving the stability and survival of independent practices.
In times of crisis like these, LUGPA’s efforts are more important than ever.
There is much concern that many independent urology practices just will not recover from this economic crisis—or they may be acquired by hospitals. LUGPA’s mission is to preserve and advance the independent practice of urology. We do this by working together. To stay strong and continue to be effective, we need your support. What can you do to help? Take advantage of our offerings, attend our events, spread the word, retweet our messages, or, if you are really passionate, come to Capitol Hill with us to speak to the lawmakers about the importance of independent urology issues.
Back in April, LUGPA headquarters received a nice note of encouragement from Manoj V. Rao, MD, of UroSurgery Associates of Northwest Indiana. He writes:
I just wanted to say thanks for all of your help. During this difficult time, we look to our urology leadership for help in how to survive and out of every organization, it seems only LUGPA has been consistently sending emails and updates and giving us guidance. I pay dues for years to a variety of organizations, but this has been the only one whose email I’m reading carefully because I know it will be helpful… In the future LUGPA is an organization in which I want to be more involved because of the help you are providing when we all need it the most. Thanks for what you guys are doing.
This is the kind of thing that makes me proud to be part of such a great organization.