Ohio Academy of Family Physicians Executive Vice President Ann Spicer and Lobbyist Kevin Stanek represented the OAFP at the House of Medicine meeting hosted by the Ohio State Medical Association on March 21 at the Doubletree Hotel in downtown Columbus, OH. Participants reviewed the legislative and regulatory issues that are anticipated in the 133rd Ohio General Assembly.
While budget language is not yet available for review, potential budget issues were discussed and include such things as raising the smoking age to 21, changing continuing medical education (CME) requirements for physician licensure, funding of Ohio Department of Higher Education line items, and increasing loan repayment programs for physicians who do substance abuse treatment. In addition, attendees discussed the rollout of Medicaid work requirements in 2021, the re-procurement of Medicaid managed care contract, and anticipated implementation of a unified credentialing system and uniform drug formulary for Medicaid. A number of scope issues are anticipated as is legislation pertaining to mental health parity and price transparency.
On the regulatory front, the group reviewed issues/progress made on rules pertaining to drug compounding and pharmacy consult agreements, implementation of medical marijuana rules, selection of the one-bite monitoring organization, and the latest round of revisions to the subacute pain rules.
The OAFP Public Policy Committee will be diving into all of these issues during its regularly-scheduled meeting on Saturday, March 30. Additional information will be provided in future issues of the Weekly Family Medicine Update.