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.
UPDATED: Your DC Physician License Won't Expire Sooner Than Expected
Note: This article has been updated to reflect that the recent change by DC Health is NOT retroactive and that currently renewing physician licenses will expire on December 31, 2024.
DC Health has changed the term of physician licensure, impacting when physician licenses expire for the renewal period that opens in October 2024. Whereas all physician licenses previously operated under the same two-year cycle with an expiration date of December 31 in even-numbered years, going forward the expiration date will vary based on the physician’s birth month. The change impacts new and renewing licensees and went into effect June 16, 2024, for new licensees. For renewing physicians, the change will take effect in September 2024 and apply to this year's renewal period.
As District physicians know, this is a licensure renewal year, and all physician licenses were set to expire on December 31, 2024. With this change, the expiration day and month will adjust to the last day of the month of your birth for the coming renewal period.
Below is what DC Health has shared to date.
From DC Health:
Change to the Term of License, Certificate and Registration Effective Date June 16, 2024
“DC Health has always operated with fixed renewal windows for each profession. In response to feedback from the health professional community, the Director has moved to change the renewal system to align with each licensee’s month of birth. As such, all applicable licenses, certificates, or registrations issued on or after June 16, 2024, will expire on the last day of the birth month of the license holder. This will apply to all new applicants and will become applicable to licensees renewing later this year. For those renewing, this will not take effect until September 2024. For all current holders of a license, certificate, or registration additional information will be provided at a later date. This authority is pursuant to Chapter 40 Section 4006.3 DCMR Chapter 40 General Rules. A mass email blast is scheduled to go out to all licensees regarding this.
“All applicable licenses, certificates, or registrations issued on or after June 16, 2024, will expire on the last day of the birth month of the license holder. Additionally, applicants born in even-numbered years will receive even-numbered expiration years while applicants born in odd-numbered years will receive odd-numbered expiration years.
After the renewal period starts : Someone born in August in an even numbered year will have an expiration date of August 31, 2026. Someone born in August in an odd numbered year will have and expiration date of August 31st, 2027.”
| Date of Birth | Date of Renewal | License Expiration Date |
| August 10, 1972 | October 5, 2024 | August 31 2026 |
| August 10, 1975 | October 6, 2024 | August 31, 2027 |
MSDC is vigorously evaluating opportunities to ease the burden to physicians and building on existing efforts. Our portal with American College of Lifestyle Medicine courses can help physicians who need to meet the 50-hour education requirement sooner than expected. MSDC will continue working to make the District of Columbia the nation’s model for patient care and physician practice, building on previous efforts to streamline interstate medical licensure and achieve regional reciprocity.
Below are other important details about continuing medical education for physician license renewal:
CE requirements for Physicians (MD/DO)
- Fifty (50) hours of CE every two (2) years, which includes
- two (2) hours in the subject of LGBTQ cultural competency
- five (5) hours in a topic designated as a public health priority (see below), and
- at least one (1) course in the subject of pharmacology.
Public Health Priorities - The most recent list of topics identified by the Director of the Department of Health appear in a list HERE.
MSDC offers courses through a partnership with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine HERE. Some of these programs may comply with the public health priority requirement.