On October 26, the Ohio State Medical Association organized a House of Medicine meeting held at the Columbus Athletic Club. Ohio Academy of Family Physicians’ Executive Vice President Ann Spicer and Deputy Executive Vice President Kate Mahler, CAE, attended representing the OAFP.
Physician organizations from multiple specialties discussed issues that are likely to confront physicians in the upcoming lame duck session (post-election through the end of the calendar year). Also discussed were issues that will likely require our attention in 2019.
Physician organizations will be closely monitoring health insurer mergers – for example, the CVS and Aetna merger and its impact on patients and patient care. Practical implementation will require us to work closely with the new state Attorney General and the Ohio Department of Insurance.
Also discussed was the Medicaid managed care complaint system which seems to be working fairly well at resolving problems experienced by physicians and other health care professionals.
Physician organizations have also filed comments opposing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) draft plan to merge evaluation and management codes; a final CMS plan will likely be announced around Thanksgiving.
As for legislation, the discussion focused on scope of practice, insurance, tort reform, price transparency, immunizations, and opioids. Legislation concerning all of these topics will need to be closely monitoring during lame duck session and then again during the next General Assembly which begins Tuesday, January 1, 2019.
Current regulatory issues, including drug compounding, medical marijuana, one-bite, and Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System compliance letters, were also reviewed.
Many of these same issues will be addressed and prioritized during the next meeting of the OAFP Public Policy Committee meeting scheduled for Saturday, November 10.