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.
2022 Looks to Be A Very Busy Year in Physician Advocacy
If you are a physician interested in advocacy or meeting with the DC Council, this will be a great year for you.
As we enter the second year of the Council cycle, MSDC sees a number of critical issues that likely will be discussed on the Council's agenda. There are many reasons for this but a key one is the backlog in issues delayed because of COVID concerns. With the Council operating remotely and needing to address numerous COVID-related legislation, issues that may have been discussed normally in the first year of a cycle are delayed to this year.
(To see a summary of this article, please enjoy this video of a presentation by MSDC Advocacy Committee Chair Dr. Klint Peebles)
First is a likely scope of practice discussion. DC Health has spoken openly about their intent to introduce a bill overhauling the Health Occupations Regulatory Act (HORA), the statute governing how medical professionals practice. DC Health has asked all the licensing boards in their jurisdiction to submit comments on changes needed. While legislative language has not been released, we anticipate there will be language of interest for DC physicians. The MSDC Board and Advocacy Committee have discussed preparations for analyzing and responding to the bill.
Second is long overdue insurance reforms. Councilmember Mary Cheh introduced a bill in late 2021 on copay accumulators. The bill would prohibit insurers from applying savings and discount programs to deductibles, meaning fewer savings for patients. MSDC is a strong supporter of this legislation and looks forward to a hearing on it to argue why this is needed legislation. We are also hearing prior authorization reform legislation could be considered as well.
Third is continued progress towards regional medical licensure or reciprocity. This took a major step forward in December when the DC Board of Medicine voted to recognize Maryland and Virginia's medical license requirements as substantially equivalent. That opens the door to DC creating through regulation a reciprocity process for Maryland and Virginia licensed physicians in good standing. MSDC has also heard the Council is interested in this issue and may take action on regional reciprocity based on the experiences of COVID-19 and the healthcare workforce.
Fourth is the budget process, an annual area of interest for MSDC. This year's budget will be different than last year's. A major reason is there is unlikely to be a major injection of federal relief funds like there was in 2021, which delayed that budget process. While the District's economy is sound, there will be hard decisions that need to be made on funding priorities.
Finally, we will potentially see action on other items on the MSDC agenda as well as new issues introduced and debated. How can you prepare as a local physician or medical student?
- Keep track of "bills of note" on the MSDC website
- Read our Advocacy Curriculum articles to learn more about the process
- Reach out and share how you want to get involved!
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