It is an honor to be a member of the NYSSA and to serve as your president for the upcoming year. Our members have acted heroically during the repeated waves of COVID-19. You have continued to provide excellent care during these challenging times while also upholding the mission of the NYSSA: to advance the specialty of anesthesiology and support the physicians and scientists who are striving to provide the safest, highest-quality patient care to the citizens of New York state.

We have learned so much this past year. Before the pandemic, many of us had never heard of Zoom or telehealth, let alone attended a virtual meeting. Our immediate past president, Dr. Christopher Campese, and the staff have gone above and beyond to ensure that the NYSSA did not skip a beat throughout this crisis.

As we welcome 2022, hoping for a return to normal but realizing that there may be bumps in the road, I am confident that with the strong support of our members, along with Stuart Hayman and his staff, we will continue our excellence in both advocacy and education. I am asking all of you to contribute to the great work of the organization. Get involved, whether it is through legislative advocacy or by joining an NYSSA committee. Your involvement in our work is critical to our ability to ensure positive outcomes, both for our patients as well as our members.     

To that end, in my first week as your president, I submitted the necessary paperwork for the NYSSA to join the Physician Advocacy Institute (PAI) in its amicus brief supporting the lawsuit filed by the Texas Medical Association to prevent changes to the No Surprises Act that was passed by Congress. The current administration changed the independent dispute resolution portion of this legislation to give the insurance industry the ability to arbitrarily reduce reimbursement for physician services. This change is NOT what Congress wanted when it passed this legislation. We will continue to monitor this situation and to represent the interests of all NYSSA members.

Many of you are already strong supporters of the NYSSA. I have one more request of you: Reach out to other anesthesiologists in our state. Mentor them and educate them on the importance of being involved in their state specialty society and playing an active role in their future. The NYSSA is much more effective when our members refuse to be complacent.

Sincerely,

Jung T. Kim, M.D., FASA