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.
Advocacy Curriculum: How to Advocate Via Social Media
Social media can be a wonderful thing. We can connect with people from different places, learn quickly about break news, and share feedback with perfect strangers. It is also a great tool for advocacy, and sharing with government officials facts and opinions about important topics. However, just like social media in other realms, poor use or abuse can undermine your advocacy efforts.
How can the busy physician or medical student effectively use social media channels to advocate before policymakers?
The first and most important thing to remember is to treat social media outreach to policymakers like you would any other social media communication. That means following the basics:
- Do not say type or record anything you would not say in person
- Use the right medium or channel to get your message across
- Check your spelling and uploads
- Use hashtags to connect your post to a larger community
- Be careful with personal information
In addition to these tips, here are a few more to consider before tagging your elected official in a post.
Make sure you use the right account: Elected officials may have an official government account and a campaign account. When you are reaching out to someone, think about whether you want their campaign or official government account to see your message. It may seem like a small detail, but the staffs for both are likely very different and may respond differently. For example, if your goal is to have an elected official show up at a protest, tagging their campaign may more quickly add it to their calendar. A more detailed policy analysis, on the other hand, may be buried in a campaign account which specializes in quick responses.
Show your work: Social media limits your characters and video posts, so an issue that requires much explaining or background can be hard to convey on social media. Be ready when you post to link to more details - usually an official scientific or government account is ideal. If you think a link with scientific knowledge is not useful, think about a post thread or series of posts to go into more detail. This example shows how an expert can communicate with the public in a way balancing in-depth information and "TL:DR" need-to-knows.
Tag the right people: If the elected official has staff or team members on social media, make sure you tag them as well if they are a source or contact for the issue. Unless it is an issue that cuts across all policy areas - and be honest with yourself if it does - tagging the whole office or every person working for them may be counterproductive. Tagging a person working on housing policy on a post about Iran may just annoy people.
Pictures still make a difference: Pictures and videos are great advocacy enhancers. You can have all the facts behind you, but a picture or video helps drive home a point better than straight facts. The best thing about social media is that it is so easy to upload and share video with text.
Tag MSDC in your posts: Feel free to include us in your posts on healthcare issues, whether on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We'll back you up if it is within our policy agenda.
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