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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.

 

 

What MSDC Said at the DC Health Oversight Hearing

Mar 2, 2023, 13:24 PM by MSDC Staff
Dr. Bathgate testified before the Committee on Health with priorities for DC Health to consider in the coming year.

MSDC President Dr. Susanne Bathgate came back to the DC Committee on Health today to outline six priorities for DC Health in the coming year.

Why now: The comments were part of Dr. Bathgate's testimony before the committee during its oversight hearing on the department. She also testified Tuesday specifically about the licensing boards.

Background: MSDC annually testifies before the Council at the DC Health oversight hearing. It is an opportunity to thank the department for their partnership and highlight areas of focus - from a physician perspective - for the coming year.

The big picture: Much of the agency's work in 2023-2024 will be guided by the Mayor's Healthcare Workforce Task Force recommendations and the department's health equity work.

The priorities

  • Implement regional license reciprocity as soon as possible
  • Reform the certificate of need process
  • Provide grants for physician wellness
  • Publish/share workforce data
  • Support the Mayor's Healthcare Workforce Task Force
  • Resist "scope creep" when considering reforms to the HORA
   


Dear Chair Henderson,

The Medical Society of the District of Columbia (MSDC) is the largest medical organization representing metropolitan Washington physicians in the District. We advocate on behalf of all 11,000 plus licensed physicians in the District and seek to make the District “the best place to practice medicine”.

MSDC is concerned about the following and encourages the committee to consider them during the budget process:

  1. Implement regional license reciprocity as soon as possible. The Board of Medicine has shared regional reciprocity should be online in the summer of 2023. The Council must keep the Boards to this timeline and ensure the DMV license reciprocity process is fully operational, including IT Infrastructure. MSDC has long championed the need for area physicians licensed in one state to easily apply for a license in the other without totally redoing their applications. We also firmly believe a regional license should be less expensive than going through the regular license.
  2. Reform the certificate of need process. MSDC is disappointed in the department’s interpretation of the District’s certificate of need process to increasingly include private practices that traditionally have not had to inquire about needing a CON. The cost of hiring attorneys to navigate a CON process is not negligible to private practices. We urge DC Health and the Council to refine the CON statute to ensure practices making nominal changes (such as hiring a replacement for a departed employee) do not require a CON. We have proposed such language to DC Health. Continuing this policy will force private practices to leave the District for Maryland and Virginia.
  3. Provide grants for physician wellness. The Mayor’s Healthcare Workforce Task Force had numerous recommendations on physician wellness. MSDC participated in an interview with the agency about healthcare burnout and solutions. At that time, we encouraged the department to aggressively fund private sector wellness initiatives. We renew our call for grants focused on healthcare wellbeing, including funding innovative and unproven (but structurally sound) programs. The problem is so big that creativity will be needed by many in the private sector to begin addressing it. We urge the budget to include money for private sector grants.
  4. Publish/share workforce data. While not mandatory, the physician survey attached to the license renewal application is a robust source of data on the District’s physician population. In previous cycles DC Health has published infographics and reports from the data; the last cycle had none. DC Health should continue to publish information from the workforce survey and, if helpful, work with private sector sources to interpret the data.
  5. Support the Mayor’s Healthcare Workforce Task Force survey. MSDC was proud to serve on this important task force and supports many of the recommendations, including the call to reform prior authorization. DC Health and the Council should work together to adopt these recommendations as soon as practical.
  6. Resist “scope creep” when considering reforms to the HORA. DC Health has been sharing that it is preparing an update to the HORA. We urge DC Health to resist what other states have done when reconsidering their health licensing laws – change scope of practice laws to reduce the requirements to practice medicine. Data has shown that patients have increased risk of harm and increased cost when allied health professionals are permitted to practice at levels currently only permitted for physicians. DC Health should resist expediency and support effective, clinically based medicine.

Please reach out to the MSDC office if our membership can be of assistance on these or any issue. We look forward to working with you and the Committee to make the District the best place to practice medicine.

Sincerely,
Susanne Bathgate, MD
President, Medical Society of DC