Financial planning now available to WisMed members

In order to help Wisconsin Medical Society members be secure, the Society has launched WisMed Financial, Inc. “Helping members with their finances can change the direction of a family and is a tremendous responsibility. WisMed Financial will have a meaningful and positive influence for our members,” said Mark Ziety, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™. And the data supports it. Fifty percent of physicians under age 40 who use a professional financial advisor are ahead in savings, emergency funds and retirement tools according to a report.

To ensure the client’s interest always comes first, the company follows a no commission, fee-only model and is held to the fiduciary legal standard. According to The White Coat Investor®, it is estimated that 80% of doctors need, want and should use a financial planner and/or an investment manager. So it was important to put these high standards in place at the company’s creation.

Providing top-notch service and products is critical, too. The firm is partnering with TD Ameritrade, RightCapital and other industry leaders. In addition, Mark Ziety brings more than 15 years of experience, he is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and Accredited Investment Fiduciary®.

The company helps members invest and plan for retirement, eliminate student loans, reduce taxes, plan for their family (wills and trust), charitable strategies, college funding and other personal financial matters. Mark can be reached at mark.ziety@wismedfinancial.org or 608.442.3750. 

Packers, other state pro teams join WisMed in COVID coalition

The Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Bucks have joined the ever-growing coalition of health care, business and government advocacy organizations urging the public to help control the spread of COVID-19. The Stop the COVID Spread! coalition also released another public service announcement statewide on October 26 featuring the Packers’ Adrian Amos, Kenny Clark and Marquez Valdes-Scantling. This new message follows on the heels of another PSA featuring former Wisconsin Governor and current UW System President Tommy Thompson.

The Wisconsin Medical Society (Society) is a founding member of the coalition, helping to launch the campaign earlier this month.

“The Packers playing in an empty Lambeau Field really drives home the point of what can happen when a pandemic hits our state,” Society CEO Bud Chumbley, MD, MBA, said. “I know we all miss getting together with our family and friends to do things like watch the Packers play, so we hope the message of masking, hand washing and social distancing coming from some of Green Bay’s finest themselves will grab people’s attention.”

The Society is also using its social media accounts to help share these safe behavior messages; Society members are encouraged to share, retweet and post those messages on their own personal accounts.

Contact Society Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer Mark Grapentine, JD for more information.

SARS-CoV-2 CME series begins next week with Virus Biology and Vaccine Development

Scott S. Terhune, PhD, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Biomedical Engineering at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), kicks off the first of five sessions in the Wisconsin Medical Society’s SARS-CoV-2 CME Town Hall Series* with the presentation Virus Biology and Vaccine Development.

Terhune received his PhD from Northwestern University and his postdoctoral training at Princeton University. He participates in both graduate student and medical student education at MCW focusing on virus replication and infection. Research in the Terhune laboratory focuses on defining how human cytomegalovirus manipulates human cells and alters networks of interactions to support infection.

This webinar is free for Wisconsin Medical Society members, but registration is required to attend.

Session topics and schedule for the entire series are listed below. All live presentations will be held from 12:15 – 12:45 p.m. To view the sessions and to register click here.

November 4, 2020: SARS-CoV-2 Virus Biology and Vaccine Development
November 11, 2020: The Current State of Therapeutics
November 18, 2020: Communicability and Public Health Response
November 25, 2020: The Convergence of Seasonal Flu and SARS-CoV-2
December 2, 2020: Combating COVID-19 Challenges in Disadvantaged Populations – a Case Study

Please email education@wismed.org with any questions.

*This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 credit™.

Governor’s prescription costs task force releases final recommendations

Governor Tony Evers’s Task Force on Reducing Prescription Drug Prices released its final recommendations October 21 on potential future state law and policies that could improve prescription drug accessibility and affordability. The task force membership included 21 people from diverse backgrounds, including members from the state executive and legislative branches and private citizens with health care, insurance and consumer experience. Wisconsin Medical Society member Michael Goldrosen, MD, was a task force member.

The task force divided their recommendations into separate tiers: those with support from a majority of the task force, issues for further consideration and issues that came up but weren’t discussed thoroughly. Among the top-tier items:

• Passing legislation related to pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) similar to a bill proposed and amended this legislative session (Assembly Bill 114 as amended by Assembly Substitute Amendment 1) that passed the state assembly unanimously but did not receive a state senate vote.
• Limiting what insurers can charge for a month’s insulin supply.
• Requiring companies in the prescription drug supply chain to provide information to aid transparency in understanding the cost drivers of high-costs prescription drugs.
• Increasing the number of state Department of Justice consumer protection and antitrust attorneys focused on improper drug company practices.
• Developing a statewide medication repository with a centralized prescription drug inventory or collaborating with an existing system in another state.

The entire 156-page report is available here, along with information about the task force’s activities and membership. An executive summary is here. It is likely that some items in the report could be included in Governor Evers’s next biennial budget proposal, which will be unveiled in the winter of 2021.

Contact Society Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer Mark Grapentine, JD for more information.