Advocacy Successes
Physician Advocacy Successes
Good health policy is made with physicians in the discussion.
MSDC, working with its members, partners, and other organizations, has won major policy victories to help its members practice medicine. Below is a sampling of those victories. Do you want to be a vital part of the next policy victory helping improve the health of the District? Contact us today.
Opioid Policy
- MSDC was added to the opioid fund oversight panel by the Council in its legislation authorizing the oversight body
Scope of Practice
- MSDC supported legislation to ban the sale of flavored electronic smoking devices and restrict the sale of electronic smoking devices.
- Working with a coalition, MSDC added funding to the DC budget to support the hiring of more license specialists to help with the delay in processing medical licenses.
Women's Health
- B24-143, to regulate certified midwives, passed the Council with MSDC's support
Health Equity
- Mayor Muriel Bowser signs into law the Electronic Medical Order for Scope of Treatment Registry Amendment Act of 2019. The eMOST Registry Amendment Act permits the creation of an electronic database of advanced directive wishes for District residents that can be tied into the health information exchange.
- Mayor Bowser signs into law the School Sunscreen Safety Temporary Amendment Act of 2019. The bill permits students to bring and apply sunscreen during the 2019-2020 school year.
- MSDC comments on the importance of funding United Medical Center (UMC) and health facilities in Wards 7 and 8 in the mayor's budget. Those comments are used almost verbatim in CM Trayon White's comments advocating for funding of United Medical Center.
Scope of Practice
- DC Health publishes draft regulations removing the 3 mandatory CME hours for HIV/AIDS awareness and replaces them with a requirement to fulfill 10% of mandatory CME hours with a topic from a public health priority list. DC Health then waived the requirement for 2020.
- The Strengthening Reproductive Health Protections Act of 2020 is signed into law with MSDC support. The bill prohibits government interference in reproductive decisions between a patient and doctor, and prohibits employers from penalizing physicians for practicing reproductive medicine outside of their work hours.
- The Mayor's Commission on Healthcare Systems Transformation releases its final recommendations. One recommendation is for the District to explore options to make providing health care more affordable, including financial relief for higher malpractice insurance rates.
- The Council removes "telephone" from the list of prohibited types of telemedicine to allow physicians and other providers to be reimbursed for telephone telemedicine appointments after MSDC and health community advocacy.
- MSDC worked with the Council to modify onerous language in the Health Care Reporting Amendment Act that potentially would have penalized physicians from seeking help for substance abuse or addiction issues.
Opioid/Drug Policy
- The Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) waives prior authorization for key medication assisted treatments (MAT) treating substance use disorder patients in Medicaid.
- The Mayor signed into law The Access to Biosimilars Amendment Act of 2019, a top MSDC priority as it would help prescribers to prescribe more cost-effective drugs for patients.
Behavioral Health
- The Behavioral Health Parity Act of 2017, a major priority for MSDC and DCPA, officially becomes law. The legislation requires all health benefit plans offered by an insurance carrier to meet the federal requirements of the Wellstone/Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
Health Equity
- The District Council passes B22-1001, The Health Insurance Marketplace Improvement Amendment Act of 2018. The bill prohibits the sale of Short Term, Limited Duration health plans and Association Health Plans (AHPs) in the DC Health Benefits Exchange.
Scope of Practice
- DC joins 28 other states in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact with B22-177 becoming law. The IMLC is designed to ease physician licensure in multiple states.
Women's Health
- The Maternal Mortality Review Committee is established by law. The Committee is responsible for finding solutions to maternal health crisis in the District. District physicians are an important part of this vital committee.
- B22-106, The Defending Access to Women's Health Care Services Amendment Act, becomes law. The act requires insurers to cover health care services like breast cancer screening and STI screenings without cost-sharing.
Opioid Policy
- Right before the Council adjourned for the session, it passed B21-32, the Specialty Drug Copayment Limitation Act. The bill limits cost shifting by payers for prescription drugs.
Behavioral Health
- B21-0007 passes the Council. The Behavioral Health Coordination of Care Amendment Act of 2016 permitted the disclosing of mental health information between a mental health facility and the health professional caring for the patient.
Women's Health
- MSDC was proud to have worked on B21-20. The law requires payers to cover up to 12 months of prescription contraception, advancing women's health and equality.
MSDC Board Chair Dr. Bathgate Testifies In Favor of Dr. Montague Cobb Way
On Tuesday, MSDC Chair of the Board of Directors Susanne Bathgate, MD, testified on behalf of the Society in favor of ceremonially renaming a street in the District after Dr. Montague Cobb.
The legislation authorizing the symbolic name change is supported and sponsored by MedChi DC. MSDC's testimony supported their effort and urged the District to consult with MedChi DC on Black District physicians who should be recognized in the District's efforts to recognize native Washingtonians.
The District government has limited ability to change street and location names officially, so the bill symbolically renames the street in Ward 1.
Dr. Montague Cobb is a noted civil rights leader and is famous medically for his research in anthropology and medicine dispelling myths that Blacks were naturally inferior to Whites. Dr. Cobb also taught for decades at Howard University's Medical School, influencing the direction of DC and Black medicine immensely. Current MedChi DC President and MSDC member Dr. Melvin Williams, for example, studied under Dr. Cobb.
Below is the text of Dr. Bathgate's testimony before the Committee of the Whole.
September 15, 2020
Committee of the Whole
Council of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004
Re: Testimony of Susanne Bathgate, MD, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Medical Society of DC, on B23-532, The Dr. Montague Cobb Way Designation Act of 2019
Thank you Chair Mendelson and Councilmembers for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Dr. Susanne Bathgate. During the day, I serve as Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist at the GW Medical Faculty Associations and Associate Professor in the GW School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Outside of my work capacity, and in the capacity I am testifying today, I am the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Medical Society of the District of Columbia.
MSDC supports the effort to symbolically name the 600 block of W Street NW “Dr. Montague Cobb Way”. Others will list the numerous reasons why Dr. Cobb is worthy of this honorific, but I wanted to highlight a few important ones from a medical perspective:
• By his own estimates, Dr. Cobb trained 6,000 health professionals at Howard University.
• His work in anthropology plus medicine showed that Black and White children’s brains developed the same way, dispelling a horrible myth that Black children were intellectually inferior by birth.
• He was a leader in the National Medical Association and Medico-Chirurgical Society of DC (MedChi DC).
• He was a child of the District, born here and educated at Dunbar High School.
The District’s medical history is incredibly rich and underrepresented in honorifics throughout the city. For example, Dr. Charles Drew – pioneer of effective blood transfusion and blood banks – was a District native. The American Medical Association itself was founded with the assistance of District physicians, three of whom served as presidents of the association.
MSDC urges the District government to include physicians and medical professionals in the lists of native Washingtonians to recognize throughout the city in new ways. We especially urge the Council and Bowser Administration to consult with our MedChi colleagues to ensure the history of Black medicine in the District is appropriately recognized.
I welcome any questions you may have today, or you may contact the MSDC office at or hay@msdc.org for follow-up questions. I thank you for this opportunity and urge you to pass this bill.
Sincerely,
Susanne Bathgate, MD, FACOG
Chair, MSDC Board of Directors
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