April 6, 2020 by matray

Under an executive order, dentists are considered essential healthcare providers and are encouraged to sign up to join the California Health Corps, a newly launched statewide effort to prepare the healthcare delivery system to respond to a potential surge in COVID-19 patients by opening additional healthcare sites. Registered dental hygienists and dental assistants can also register to join the effort. Recruits will be financially compensated and provided malpractice insurance coverage for the care they provide.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order allows for another 50,000 hospital beds at minimum for the state’s healthcare facilities. It also temporarily maximizes the number of available and qualified healthcare workers who can staff the additional beds or relieve frontline personnel by caring for individuals who need treatment for conditions other than COVID-19. Respiratory therapists, medical assistants, public health professionals, medical retirees and other healthcare professionals are needed in addition to dental professionals.

“If you have a background in healthcare, we need your help,” Gov. Newsom said in the news release. In times of catastrophic emergencies, flexibility on scope of practice and licensure is allowed under California law. Those changes in state law were made after 9/11.

Register to join California’s emergency staffing
Dentists and other interested healthcare professionals can visit the California Health Corps website for complete eligibility details and to register to join California’s emergency staffing response to the coronavirus outbreak. After California Health Corps verifies a candidate’s registration and California license for clinical practice (if it applies), Health Corps will ask the candidate to submit an application to complete the process and determine skills, experience, location preferences and interests prior to hiring and deployment.

Dentists’ skills can be used in the state’s fight against COVID-19 in many ways, including:

• Taking vital signs.
• Testing for COVID-19.
• Triaging patients.
• Administering oxygen.
• Administering injectables, including vaccinations.
• Writing prescriptions.
• Intubating and providing deep sedation or general anesthesia services – applies to oral surgeons and dentist anesthesiologists only.

Assigned staffing locations will vary according to the highest need in the state, but California Health Corps said it will try to match applicants’ geographical preferences. The executive order comes as hospitals and medical centers in New York are already experiencing a patient surge along with the problems associated with dwindling capacity and staffing.

“California must continue to prepare our healthcare delivery system and make sure it has every resource to respond to a potential surge in COVID-19 patients,” said Mark Ghaly, MD, secretary of California Health & Human Services. “California’s most valuable resource is its people and I join the Governor in calling on all medical professionals to join the fight against COVID-19.”

Register to join California’s expanded workforce. For more COVID-19 news and resources, including future updates about the Health Care Corps initiative, visit cda.org/covid19.

April 6, 2020 by matray

California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced the creation of a new volunteer corps for California healthcare workers who want to help during the COVID-19 outbreak. The new program —California Health Corps — is open to physicians (both active and retired), medical students and a wide range of healthcare professionals and administrative staff.

Participants will be paid and will be given malpractice insurance coverage.

At the press conference, Newsom was joined by San Francisco pediatrician Shannon Udovic-Constant, MD, vice-chair of the California Medical Association (CMA) Board of Trustees, who urged all medical professionals who can assist to answer the call during this crisis. Udovic-Constant noted that many physicians are struggling during the outbreak, including hundreds who have had to close their practices or furlough employees. But that has not deterred hundreds of physicians, medical students and residents from offering their assistance.

“Many of us were drawn to careers in medicine because of the opportunity to help others. Now, we are asking all medical professionals – physicians, nurses, physician assistants, other medical staff members – to join us and helping California through this surge,” Udovic-Constant said. “For many of us, that means stepping outside our comfort zone. But we are calling on the spirit of health care workers across California to continue to step up and help serve the patients of our state.”

Hundreds of physicians, residents and medical students have already reached out to CMA offering their expertise and assistance during the crisis. CMA will continue to work with state leaders about how best to deploy those who have offered to help. For more information on how you can volunteer, please visit healthcorps.ca.gov.

April 6, 2020 by matray

As part of ongoing efforts to support our dedicated physicians throughout New York, MLMIC Insurance Co. is extending medical professional liability coverage – without requiring any new premium – to retired physicians who were last insured with MLMIC and are coming back as volunteers to provide care during the COVID-19 pandemic. MLMIC defines “volunteer,” in this case, as a retired physician providing professional services for no fee, salary or other compensation with the exception of reimbursement for expenses incurred delivering those services. Qualifying physicians may apply online.

The coverage limits of the medical professional liability offered to these volunteers will be the same as they held when actively practicing prior to retirement and when last insured by MLMIC. Coverage also includes defense costs if a claim is filed against them while volunteering. In addition, if the returning physician previously held regulatory defense coverage, it will be provided for actions resulting from volunteer professional services. There is no new premium for this coverage, which is included through physicians’ expired policies without impact upon any presently existing tail policies.

New York physicians can access this information at https://www.mlmic.com/covid-19/returning-physicians. To request coverage, interested volunteers can apply online or call (800) ASK-MLMIC (1-800-275-6564) and ask for Underwriting.