Serve Your Profession

A healthy legislative agenda depends on committees that study issues and recommend change at the local, state and national levels

DO YOU HAVE ideas for legislation to improve medical practice or healthcare delivery? Here’s where you begin: join a Chicago Medical Society committee. Whatever your practice type, age, or specialty, CMS has a committee waiting for you. As the backbone of our organization, committees anticipate and respond to trends and issues, and they are open to all members. The time commitment is minimal, thanks to our electronic meeting format.

Flexible Participation
Your participation can be active or just learning and listening. Committees study issues brought by other members, leadership, or outside organizations. You’ll hear testimony, shape resolutions, and have ample opportunity to share your opinions.

This page describes all the CMS committees on which students, residents, and physicians can make their voices count, and watch their dues dollars at work. For information, or to sign up for a committee, please call 312-670-2550 or email rbahena@ cmsdocs.org.

Academic Physicians Committee
Purpose: Addresses the unique regulatory and financial issues that affect academic physicians, and it provides a forum to discuss them. The committee is responsible for researching the feasibility of policies, activities and services to best serve the needs and interests of academic physicians.

Health Care Economics Committee
Purpose: Monitors local managed care trends, healthcare delivery service and quality; advises CMS of significant trends; reviews the actions of the professional liability insurance industry; informs CMS about health planning in Chicago and Suburban Cook County; evaluates the effects of reimbursement policies on physicians.

Physicians Advocacy Committee
Purpose: Represents and protects the rights, responsibilities, and interests of physicians in all modes of medical practice and in all hospital medical staff issues, including physician self-governance, credentialing, medical policy development, peer review, patient advocacy, and quality of care. The committee resolves complaints, disputes, or conflicts involving any physician member of a medical staff and any structured medical entity.

Public Health Committee
Purpose: In addition to drafting resolutions, this committee studies public health issues and initiates contact with relevant groups. The committee also reviews and responds to requests for advice, opinion, or program approval from any health department, municipal health committee, or public health body in Cook County.

Resolutions Reference Committee
Purpose: Studies member resolutions, holds hearings on those resolutions, reviews current CMS policy and potential new policies and directives; makes recommendations to the Council.

Council on Medical Staff Leadership
Purpose: Addresses the needs and interests of medical staff leadership, as well as the unique issues affecting medical staffs and hospitals. Services include: arranging quarterly meetings; developing educational programs; preparing newsletters to update staff on medical, legal, and legislative topics; and researching areas of interest or concern.

Employed Physicians Committee
Purpose: Addresses the concerns of employed physicians through education and advocacy. Efforts in this area include programs on employment contracting, employee rights, and benefit resources.

Women Physicians Forum
Purpose: Provides for the unique needs and interests of women physicians. As the local counterpart of the Illinois State Medical Society’s (ISMS) Women Physicians Forum, the group focuses on: (1) representing and advocating on behalf of women physicians; (2) networking; and (3) offering services specific to women physicians.

Young Physicians Group
Purpose: Assists new physicians in their transition from training to a professional career. A young physician is defined as a doctor younger than age 40 or a physician within the first eight years of professional practice following residency and fellowship training. This resource provides networking, educational and mentoring opportunities.

Communications/Technology Committee
Purpose: Monitors the world of technology, and informs and educates members on the use of computer and technology applications in the clinical setting and for personal use.

Bylaws/Policy Review Committee
Purpose: Reviews suggested changes to the CMS Bylaws, and recommends amendments to the Council when appropriate; reviews Council actions and statements in the CMS Policy Manual for appropriateness and timeliness.

Continuing Medical Education Committee
Purpose: Ensures that CMS is in compliance with the Essential Areas and Standards for Commercial Support (SCS) of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME); initiates, implements and evaluates CME programs; assists related groups in structuring CME programs under joint sponsorships.

Long-Range Planning Committee
Purpose: Ensures that CMS has a well-conceived five-year strategic plan that includes an analysis of the Society’s trends, strengths and weaknesses and the environment of medicine; prescribes actions to position CMS for the future.

Membership/IMG Committee
Purpose: Develops strategic plans for the recruitment and retention of members, including residents and students; reviews new membership applications, status change requests, dues waivers and transfers, and makes recommendations to the Council; reviews reinstatement requests from physicians who have resigned or forfeited their membership; supports measures to integrate IMGs into American medical practice; represents issues of concern to IMGs.

Senior Physicians Group
Purpose: Provides a vehicle for CMS senior physicians to support CMS through outreach, education, and mentoring.

Subcommittee on Joint Sponsorship
Purpose: Helps plan CME activities and provides detailed review of all applications received from related organizations for joint sponsorship; advises the full CME Committee on trends, concerns, and requirements; assures that CMS activities and joint sponsorship programs are in full compliance with the Essential Areas and Standards for Commercial Support of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).

Credentials/Elections Committee
Purpose: Determines the number of voting members present during Council meetings, announces quorums, acts as tellers, if necessary, and takes charge of all general elections.

Remember: grassroots committees make your profession and your Medical Society stronger.