Medical Educational & Scientific Foundation of New York, Inc.

MESF/MSSNY’s Telehealth Improvement Initiative

The Medical, Educational and Scientific Foundation (MESF) is a 501C3 subsidiary of the Medical Society of the State of New York (MSSNY). Established in 1984, the organization is focused on the implementation of a variety of programs that encompass the clinical and practice management for the benefit of physicians. MSSNY’s mission is to advance the health of the residents of our state by promoting a favorable environment for medicine through advocacy, education and professional community for New York State physicians. MSSNY seeks to contribute to the professional and personal development of member physicians by representing the profession as a whole and advocating health-related rights, responsibilities and issues.

The policy change MSSNY is seeking would amend the public health and insurance laws to provide for payment parity between the delivery of health care services via Telehealth and services delivered in a traditional in-person environment. This will be done by leveraging MSSNY/MESF affiliation with county medical societies and the various medical specialty societies, to identify 5-10 primary care physicians who are in various stages of implementation of the telehealth and working with county medical societies, specialty societies, and our physician leadership and members of the MSSNY Council, to identify practices in the rural, suburban and urban areas of New York State. This will provide a cross-section of practices to assist with the implementation or optimization of telehealth. This program will show the effectiveness of telemedicine, not just from a payment standpoint, but on clinical outcomes.