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2020 MEDICAL YEAR
IN REVIEW

We all had a vision for 2020. We • Insurance types accepted (subject to
thought that we would unveil a plan that set the patient verification)
path for our day-to-day operations, however, it • Physician photos
all changed in a matter of days. Everything we
had planned was changed. The path we thought As COVID-19 was emerging, BCMS and
we could follow took us on a big detour. That is TMA could see the need for Practice Viability
Your when the Bexar County Medical Society Resources, including funding sources (SBA and
others), liability insurance policy updates,
(BCMS) and the Texas Medical Association
(TMA) began refocusing our efforts. As we payer, coding and documentation guidance
Medical took our journey down this new road, we (Medicare, Medicaid and Commercial Plans)

and human resources guidance. If you are new
learned to adapt and find resources that would
Society help our members navigate through the new to practice or to Texas, we can provide guide-
lines to open your practice and run your daily
way to practice medicine.
We, like you, could see that telemedicine and practice, financial and clinical operations, etc.
By Your Side its usage were becoming the means of practic- Besides business help, leadership help for
ing medicine for many physicians, especially physicians during this pandemic has been awe-
By Brissa Vela when involving such a serious contagion. As a inspiring! Your medical Society has served the
result, several services were developed to assist medical community in so many ways, spending
the physicians navigate this under-used service, countless hours giving guidance to the commu-
enabling it to emerge for the daily practice of nity leaders, not only locally but at the state
medicine. The services developed for our mem- level as well.
bers include free telemedicine contract review, The Student Collaboration Committee has
telemedicine vendor evaluation criteria, assis- also stepped up for the benefit of all physicians
tance creating business service agreements with during this pandemic. This group is made up of
telemedicine platform vendors using HIPAA- students from both medical schools (UT
compliant encrypted services, guidance on ap- Health SA and UIW) who have been heavily
pointment scheduling and obtaining patient involved supporting the BCMS COVID-19
consent, and help with prescription and med- Taskforce, PPE distribution, writing of articles
ication management through telemedicine about how the medical schools are adapting,
platforms. and volunteering to support your medical soci-
To ensure patients can find our physician ety’s efforts.
members, the BCMS Find a Doctor referral The BCMS Task Force, in combination with
service (available on the Bexar County Medical medical students, developed public service an-
Society phone app or on the BCMS.org web- nouncements (PSAs) supporting the “Wear a
site) continues to provide online information Mask” campaign; developing the COVID-19
that is updated continuously for the commu- Pediatric Symptom Severity Chart; preparing
nity and for our physician members. We en- Parental Guides in English and Spanish; and
courage every physician to review their profile creating artwork for social media outreach.
and make sure it is always up-to-date. This serv- They also lead a Give Back campaign to benefit
ice allows new and existing BCMS members to the San Antonio Food Bank.
provide the following referral information: As we continue to work through these chal-
• Physician primary and secondary lenging times, we will always continue to focus
specialties on the needs of our members and their practices.
• Practice(s) information addresses, phone
numbers and website links Brissa Vela is the BCMS
• Physician education history Membership Director.
• Hospital affiliations

34 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • December 2020