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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.

24th Council Period (2021-2022)

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
23rd Council Period (2019-2020) [see update for entire Council period]

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.
22nd Council Period (2017-2018)

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.
21st Council Period (2015-2016)

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.

 

 

Dr. Schott Uses Her Superpower to Help Others

Jul 5, 2022, 08:19 AM by Aimee O'Grady
Meet MSDC member and volunteer Dr. Meghan Schott

 

Dr. Schott has a superpower, although she didn’t officially realize it until she was an adult when as a medical student, she was diagnosed with ADHD.


Formally recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a disability, Dr. Schott sees it as her strongest attribute and perhaps the reason for her ability to keep steady in the fast-paced world of pediatric emergency medicine. 

“Sometimes I am a patient’s last resort and other times I am their first stop,” she said of the wide array of cases she sees. “Oftentimes I am contacted by schools when student behavior is observed, and teachers and nurses want to ensure wellbeing. Other times, if an adolescent wants to commit suicide, I realize that if I let them go, they may kill themselves and I am trying to buy time.”

In addition to suicide ideation, she sees uncontrolled psychosis, aggression, and addiction in her older patients, to name just a few issues that her patients present. Dr. Schott has had patients stalk her and she’s been assaulted in the emergency room but it’s what she has wanted to do since she was in 7th grade. “At the time, I wanted to become a math teacher, but I became so frustrated with my brother when I tried to help him with his math work that I realized teaching wasn’t for me.” She credits the Dewey decimal system for steering her towards psychiatry. “I was in the library looking at New Age (things like palmistry and handwriting analysis) books and the psychiatry books were just further down the shelf,” she said. 

Dr. Schott was a well-rounded student who maintained good grades, played sports, and did community service so it came as a shock when she failed her first year of medical school. “I couldn’t believe it. Medicine was my goal for so long, I didn’t know what to do,” she said. 

The next year, she concentrated her efforts, and her grades improved, only for her to be accused of cheating. “I needed to hire a lawyer. It was just before this that I was diagnosed with ADHD. I realized that throughout my undergraduate students, I was stimulating myself with overactivity. I graduated college in three years, played three sports, did over 900 hours of community service, had 3 jobs during college, and studied during the remaining time. After the failed year, I became very depressed and sought the help of a doctor who made the official diagnosis,” she said.

Her diagnosis helped her to better understand her behavior. During litigation on the accusation of cheating, with the help of her lawyer, she learned how to navigate ADA laws. This “disability” did not affect her ability to care for patients and to mentor high school, college, and medical students towards a career in health care. his past year, “I was nominated for a mentorship award. I wasn’t the most successful person in the class, but sometimes you don’t want that person. You want the person who understands,” she said. 

Today she knows she is in the right place. “I am sometimes the first person to speak frankly to a patient. When I see they are doing something that may get them in trouble, I speak up. I’m a white, female and I’m the one warning them that they could be hurt or shot if they don’t make drastic behavioral changes.”

It’s the challenging patients that keep Dr. Schott going. “We had one patient who would come in twice a week for a year. He was severely traumatized, and we were the only place that would take him. He had learned that being aggressive got him what he wanted. I saw him one and half years later after residential placement and he was doing well. He’s one of my success stories.” 

By age 18, her patients move on to other emergency departments and Dr. Schott welcomes new ones. “I rarely get to see how my patients are doing. If I never see them again that is a good thing. It means they never had another crisis needing emergency psychiatric care.”

Even though the cases are challenging and often lead to disappointed and angry patients and their families, she copes with the challenges of often “saying no” by advocating in D.C. to change things slowly. This is accomplished by things like speaking to lawmakers about how police work with mental health patients and being a mayor-appointed member of the DC Citizen Review Panel that looks at how the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) is servicing abused and neglected youth. 

Originally from Texas, Dr. Schott was in Colorado when a job became available in D.C. “I was at a conference when an email came through to a listserv I belong to about a job opening for a child psychiatry job in an E.R. in D.C. I emailed my mom in Texas telling her 'I was thinking of applying.' She was always encouraging me to come home to Texas, this time she told me, “Thinking? You better (apply).” 

She joined MSDC practically by accident. “I was involved in advocacy and psychiatry when someone sent me an email about partnering with MSDC about DC minor consent laws. I did and it wasn’t long until I realized that I need to be more involved with this organization. Ever since I’ve been involved in psychiatry advocacy, other doors have opened like being on the Wellbeing Task Force."

Dr. Schott maintains her own mental health through recreational soccer. “I grew up playing soccer and play up to four nights each week. Sometimes it’s the only thing that gets me out of the hospital.” She’s a defender and likes the challenge of outsmarting her opponent. “I’m quick on my feet,” she said both literally and figuratively of a talent useful off the field as well.  

One of her less active hobbies is brewing beer. “I had a Groupon for it and did this while I waited for my D.C. medical license to be issued.” Brewing beer also gave her something to focus on during the pandemic. 

This avid volunteer also renewed her passion for volunteerism during COVID. “I reached out to a few food kitchens and began volunteering again. I do about 80 hours of volunteer service each month,” she said.

At the end of her busy days, Dr. Schott feels that her ADHD has served her well and made her into the empathetic physician that she is today.

Do you know a physician who should be profiled in the MSDC Spotlight Series? Submit a nomination to Robert Hay, hay@msdc.org, for a future story. MSDC membership is encouraged for featured physicians.