History - 2001

Introduction
MMGMA accomplished a great deal in 2000-2001. The main issues that we identified for the year included redesigning the Web Site, continuing to identify opportunities to provide value to our members, and addressing some key Legislative issues. With the Hennepin and Ramsey Medical Society's as well as the MMA we published with "Alerts". These alerts, which summarized potential contract issues with some of the major payers, were very well received by members. Some facts: We had 675 members and our dues were to $75/yr. We held two conferences, a winter conference in Minneapolis and a summer conference in Alexandria.

Winter Conference
March 5-March 6,2001 at the Radisson South in Minneapolis
The conference committee included Mary Davern, Carl Anderson, Sue Haugen, John Whisney, and (Maria Huntly and Lisa Finger, from Non-Profit solutions) and Brad. The conference with a theme of "2001 Group Practice Odyssey" was very successful. Net income after expenses was $44,000. We had over 400 member attendees with 69 exhibitors. A number of great conference sponsors really helped make the meeting a success. The exhibit hall sold out and had a waiting list. The sponsors contributed over $75,000 to both conferences and to the general fund. This was also the first MMGMA event that you could register and pay on-line at our Website. 30 members registered on line.

The speakers included Marilyn Moats Kennedy, who discussed how to work with Gen-xers as well as how to serve Gen-x customers. HIPAA was a big issue as well a great panel from our membership that discussed the personal transitions they had experienced in their lives. The conference closed with a lively talk from the President and founder of the Geek Squad.

Summer Conference
August 8-10,2001 at the Radisson Arrowwood in Alexandria
The Planning Committee consisted of the same group as for the Winter Meeting. Mary Davern, Carl Anderson, Sue Haugen, John Whisney, Lisa Finger and Maria Huntley. We had planned so far in advance that it just worked best to use the same group. The theme for the summer conference was "Hot Topics and Burning Issues". Over 200 members attended and the 42 exhibitors sold out the exhibit hall. We again had some wonderful meeting sponsors that supported some of the speakers as well as the trip to the Winery.

We celebrated 50 years of MMGMA with a birthday party at our business meeting lunch. We again had some wonderful speakers including: Mitchell Kusy who shared insights from his book Fast Forward Leadership as well as Steve Lundin who presented the widely popular employee enrichment program-FISH. The highlight of the week was the weather, which was perfect. The golf tournament held Wed afternoon was successful as well as the Thursday evening function we had at the Carlos Creek Winery. Financially the conference made about $5,000 for the organization.

Newsletter
In the summer of 2001 we sent out our first electronic newsletter. While we believe about 90% of our members have e-mail access; a 100% have someway to get to an electronic newsletter. The first couple times we e-mailed the newsletter we also sent a hard copy but by the end of 2001 very few paper copies were being sent out.

Legislative efforts
The government affairs committee lead by Greg Maurer and Ric Davenport did another great job sorting out the priority issues for MMGMA. The group along with efforts from many of our members including Phil Riveness, made some great progress with Contracting, Language Interpretation, and the Sick Tax. A provider coalition that included representation from the Chiropractors, Physical therapists,the Medical Societies, as well as the MMGMA, introduced legislation that will help providers with contracting issues in three areas including:Passive Contracting Limitations, Mandatory Disclosure of Contract Changes, and Provider options to decline and later participate in new categories of medical service. As I previously discussed, the "Alerts" that we did for Blue Cross, Health Partners, and Preferred One that described potential issues with their latest contracts were very well received by our members. Of course they raised some issues with the payers but we did regular meetings set up to discuss issues.

Meetings
We had 4 board meetings that were held December, February, May and September from 11:30-3:30 pm. We also held monthly Executive Committee meetings.

Salary Survey; The MMGMA Salary Survey was conducted with Fairview and Allina. We pay about $3,000 to have this survey done which was well received by the members.

Other Associations
MMGMA became one of the founding members of the Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety. MMGMA also participated in the Kids Coalition that is working with the state to improve healthcare for all children in the state.