On December 18, 2015, and Ohio Academy of Family Physicians President Tom Houston, there MD; President-Elect Ryan Kauffman, MD; Lobbyist David Paragas, JD; and Executive Vice President Ann Spicer joined representatives of the Ohio Osteopathic Association, the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Ohio Society of Internal Medicine, the Ohio State Society of Osteopathic Family Physicians, and the Ohio Section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for a meeting of the Ohio Coalition of Primary Care Physicians.
Updates were provided on a number of issues being followed by primary care physician organizations including primary care workforce shortages, Medicaid primary care rate increases, state innovation model and patient-centered medical home activities of the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation, and the work of the Graduate Medical Education Study Committee. Key pieces of legislation were reviewed relative to opportunities for advocacy. Among those legislative issues discussed were a price transparency provision included in the state’s workers compensation budget, advanced practice registered nurse independent practice legislation (House Bill 216), flu vaccine mandates (House Bill 170), Representative Jim Butler’s comprehensive health care reform legislation (House Bill 157), prior authorization legislation (Senate Bill 129), and efforts by the State Medical Board of Ohio to eliminate one-bite replacing it with the first occurrence recovery program. In addition, the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics announced that its organization is entertaining the idea of introducing legislation to put additional limitations on reasons for opting out of immunizations required for admission to public and private schools.
The meeting concluded with a presentation by Ted Wymyslo, MD, and Heather Porter of the Ohio Association of Community Health Centers (OACHC) on their new federally qualified health centers primary care workforce initiative. The initiative plans to use Ohio’s 44 community health centers to teach and inspire the next generation of primary care physicians and other primary care health providers by exposing them to rich clinical primary care experiences. The OAFP Foundation is collaborating with the OACHC on this initiative through its Leroy Rodgers, MD, Summer Preceptorship Program.
The Ohio Coalition of Primary Care Physicians will meet next on Friday, June 17.