The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) advocacy team monitors healthcare related legislation, rule changes, and legislative updates for Ohio’s family physicians.
To access the OAFP Bill Tracker, visit the OAFP Public Policy webpage and click on the Bill Tracker icon.
Read on for this week’s updates and contact Advocacy Coordinator Kaela Springhetti with questions or for ways to get involved.
Speak Out: Congress Must Act on Ongoing Physician Visa Delays
Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently announced that it was lifting the administrative hold on visa applications for physicians, significant delays and uncertainty remain. While the Administration has acknowledged a backlog of visa applications, many physicians still do not know whether they will be able to begin residency training, continue practicing, or remain in the communities that rely on their care.
With the July 1st start of the new residency training year approaching, time is running out. Delays in visa processing threaten to disrupt patient care, worsen physician shortages, and leave hospitals and residency programs scrambling to fill critical workforce gaps.
Non-U.S. citizen physicians are an essential part of the physician workforce and play a critical role in providing care in rural and underserved communities. Congress must hold the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security accountable and ensure these delays are resolved immediately.
Please take two minutes to participate in this Speak Out. Together, we can ensure a stronger healthcare system for all. Thank you for your commitment to protecting our physicians and improving patient care.
Rural Ohio Hospitals Feel Brunt of Noncompete Clauses as Legislators Eye Ban
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
Katherine Able-Perkins, DO, loves being a primary care doctor in Athens, OH.
She was drawn into primary care for its variety and the ability to build relationships with patients, from normal check-ups to severe illness, from births to deaths. While Dr. Able-Perkins doesn’t want to leave Athens, her home of 20 years, she does want to leave her current employer, OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital, for Memorial Health System in the same city.
If she isn’t released from a noncompete clause in her current contract, however, she’s afraid those relationships she’s built and the care her patients get could be at risk. Under her contract, she couldn’t work in Athens for at least a year upon leaving OhioHealth, something she worries would dissuade her patients from seeking her care or finding a new doctor at all.
Dr. Able-Perkins is one of hundreds of thousands of doctors and other highly skilled healthcare workers across the United States beholden to noncompetes. These clauses can lock them out of the communities they’ve served for months, or sometimes years, if they want to leave for another job.
The issue is under scrutiny by the Ohio legislature, where two bills aimed at addressing it have been introduced.
Read the full article in The Columbus Dispatch.
Justice Alito Extends Temporary Freeze on Mifepristone Ruling
Source: Hannah News
Effects of a federal appellate court ruling to block the remote prescribing of the abortion drug mifepristone will remain on hold at least a few more days, after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recently extended the stay he’d previously issued.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month granted a request for a stay of the regulation on prescribing mifepristone, which a district court had decided was flawed but had declined to stay on its own. But last week, Justice Alito issued an order for the U.S. Supreme Court freezing the Fifth Circuit’s ruling through May 10.
On the afternoon of May 10, Justice Alito extended his stay until 5 p.m. Thursday, May 14.
In the litigation, the state of Louisiana said the remote dispensing of mifepristone was facilitating nearly 1,000 abortions in violation of state law, which generally bans administering, prescribing, procuring, or selling a drug like mifepristone for abortion. The state also cited expenses its Medicaid program has borne for women who face complications from abortions caused by mifepristone.
The Fifth Circuit ruled that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to remove an in-person prescribing requirement was not reasonable, finding that the agency gave weight to a lack of adverse event data after having eliminated the requirement to report such adverse events, and had relied on scientific literature that did not support its position.
In response to the Fifth Circuit decision, Danco Laboratories and GenBioPro applied to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of the appellate ruling.
Taking mifepristone is the most prevalent form of inducing abortion in Ohio. Of about 25,000 abortions reported in Ohio in 2025, mifepristone was used in about 15,000, according to the latest annual report on abortions from the Ohio Department of Health.