County Medical Societies See Increased Activity

As the calendar turns to April, county medical societies across the state are engaging their members with a variety of activities from clinical to casual. Perhaps the state’s most active county society, the Natrona County Medical Society, held the latest in its CME lecture series on Monday in Casper welcoming Kellie Moser from WYhealth.

According to Natrona County Medical Society President Joe McGinley, MD, PhD., WYhealth offers extensive support to help with various chronic diseases and preventative care in Medicaid patients. Physicians who participate are eligible for additional billing code reimbursements when seeing Medicaid patients.

“This program increases practice revenue while providing excellent free programs for Medicaid patients,” says McGinley. “The process is extremely simple and almost any physician can participate.”

WYhealth is available to meet with individual physicians or practices to help implement the program anywhere in the state.  For more information, contact Kellie Moser at 307-757-7259 or kellie.moser@xerox.com.  WYhealth’s website is www.wyhealth.net.

For more information on Natrona County Medical Society schedules or events, contact Executive Director Brooke Chynoweth at:  brookechynoweth@mac.com.

In Laramie County, representatives of the Laramie County Medical Society and the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center’s Foundation are combining on a concept they are calling the Caduceus Society. The partnership will attempt to create social networking opportunities for physicians both employed with the hospital and those who operate independently.

The concept for the “meetings,” involves a monthly dinner party at the home of a Cheyenne physician. Other doctors from the VA, CRMC, the WWAMI program, and Warren Air Force Base will receive invitations. For last week’s planning dinner, a small group of physicians laid out the idea at the home of Robert Prentice, MD, and Sandra Surbrugg, MD.

“It was a chance to sit down, and have dinner and meet colleagues without having to talk shop,” says Laramie County Medical Society President Kristina Behringer, MD.

CRMC Foundation Annual Giving/Grants Director Wendy Fanning said the idea for the event came from similar events hosted by the Tucson (Ariz.) Opera. Board members, season ticket holders, and performers broke bread monthly and the result was increased interest from the community and increased giving to the opera.

Fanning and Behringer say they hope to use the events as outreach to physicians in the community in an effort help new physicians get connected and stay in Cheyenne. The next scheduled meeting for the Caduceus Society is still in the planning stages but will likely take place at the end of April. For more information, contact Fanning at 214-0897 or Behringer at  757-7915.

Two other County Medical Societies also have plans for meetings this upcoming week. The Teton County Medical Society will hold a meeting at the home of Dr. Lisa Finkelstein at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 10. This meeting will be held to review the results of the 2016 legislative session with Representative Ruth Petroff, Representative Andy Schwartz, and State Senator Leland Christensen. This will be a time to answer questions and go over important issues that relate to physicians. Dr. Finkelstein’s address is:  4140 South Wilson Rd, Jackson. Please RSVP by emailing Dr. Finkelstein directly at:   sunuro@prodigy.net

The Goshen County Medical Society will meet at Deacons Restaurant in Torrington at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12. Joining the Goshen County Medical Society will be Wyoming Medical Society President, Sigsbee Duck, MD, RPh.; and Wyoming Medical Society Executive Director Sheila Bush. Duck and Bush will offer an overview of the Wyoming Medical Society’s latest efforts, as well as a time to go over physician-related legislation which came out of the recent state legislative session.

This event is open to all Goshen County physicians and their spouses regardless of affiliation with the Wyoming Medical Society. Please email Dr. Marion Smith to RSVP for the event at: Marion.Smith@bannerhealth.com or by accepting this calendar invite.