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 Workforce and Advocacy Manager Caitlin Laudeman with questions or for ways to get involved.
August Issue of AAFP’s Family Medicine Advocacy Rounds Published
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) has released its August issue of Family Medicine Advocacy Rounds, a monthly tip sheet to educate, engage, and update you on the latest policy issues affecting family physicians and their patients.
- Family Physicians Urge Congress to Support G2211 Add-On Code
- IPPS Final Rule is an Advocacy Win for Family Physicians
- AAFP Reaffirms Workforce Priorities in New Joint Letter
- AAFP Supports Increased Access to PrEP
- AAFP Responds to FTC Rule on Patient Privacy
- Immunizations Must Be Part of Every Back-to-School Checklist.
Ballot Board Makes Reproductive Freedom Amendment Issue 1, Marijuana Issue 2, Adopts Official Language
Source: NEA Consulting Weekly Ohio Update
The Ohio Ballot Board recently voted along party lines to adopt a staff-written summary from Secretary of State Frank LaRose as the official ballot language for the proposed constitutional amendment on reproductive and abortion rights, overruling Democrats’ objections that it used misleading language. The board designated the amendment as Issue 1 and an initiated statute on marijuana legalization as Issue 2.
Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, the campaign group in support of Issue 1, said it was considering but had not committed to a lawsuit in the Ohio Supreme Court to challenge the adopted ballot language, which spokesperson Lauren Blauvelt described as “propaganda.” The pro-Issue 1 campaign had asked the board to consider adopting the full language of the amendment as the official ballot language, and Senator Paula Hicks-Hudson (D-Toledo, OH) started the discussion with a motion to take that approach. “The reason I do that is because the full text is clear, it’s concise and it’s direct,” said Sen. Hicks-Hudson, arguing that fulfills the statutory requirements the board is supposed to meet.
Secretary of State LaRose, Senator Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green, OH) and board member William Morgan voted against Sen. Hicks-Hudson’s motion. Secretary of State LaRose noted the full language of the amendment will be posted at polling locations and published in newspapers statewide for voters to see. The Democrats later moved specific amendments to language in the LaRose staff summary to which they objected, but were again overruled. Sen. Gavarone argued the amendment language was “written very broadly,” to the point that “it’s unequivocally true that access to painful, late term abortions will be written into Ohio’s Constitution.” Secretary of State LaRose said he agreed with her but, as he had earlier in the meeting, advised that the board’s job was not to debate the merits of the proposals.
Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, said he would have liked to see ballot language that was more specific, but said he believed the board had met its duty to write an accurate summary and expressed confidence the Ohio Supreme Court would uphold it if the pro-Issue 1 campaign fields a lawsuit.
The Issue 2 discussion was over quickly, with no debate and a unanimous vote on the staff summary prepared by LaRose’s office outlining the marijuana initiated statute. The board also voted to designate two groups of lawmakers to write official arguments against the issues, to be published along with official arguments in favor submitted by the campaign groups.
The Simple Truth about Primary Care’s Complexity
Source: AAFP In the Trenches Blog
The AAFP, alongside health organizations representing more than a million clinicians, started 2023 by asking Congress to comprehensively reform Medicare payment. Do it this year, we all said. Then, in the spring, lawmakers moved in that direction by introducing bipartisan legislation to ensure annual inflation-indexed increases to the Medicare physician fee schedule’s conversion factor. The Academy rallied behind the bill together with scores of other physician groups.
Neither that bill nor any other congressional reform everyone in the house of medicine wants has passed yet this session. Unfortunately, this has left a big opening for the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program proposed rule (published last month; the AAFP’s summary for members is here) to divide clinicians. Keep reading the blog post to learn from the AAFP about G2211 and the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
Medicaid Coverage
Source: NEA Consulting Weekly Ohio Update
Ohio is still removing substantially more people from the Medicaid program for procedural reasons rather than specifically determining they are ineligible, a situation far from unique as states work to unwind pandemic-era coverage policies but one that has drawn scrutiny from the federal government. The Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) says data show it’s performing in line with or better than other states, and specifically peer states, while expressing concern about its own timeliness on processing eligibility cases given past scrutiny on that issue in Ohio. “We’re kind of middle, upper middle of the class,” ODM Director Maureen Corcoran told Hannah News in a recent interview. Director Corcoran also emphasized the need to look at a larger dataset over a longer period of time to get the full picture. For example, ODM has only a month or so of data on what is called churn — people who leave the program but come back on relatively quickly. A person who is terminated from the program but reapplies and is approved within 90 days will have their eligibility backdated to the removal date to avoid an interruption in coverage.
Physician-Led Care Team Key to Effective Care
Source: Medscape
States are working to address the real and growing problem of a primary care physician shortage, which is due to long-term systemic underinvestment in primary care coupled with overwhelming burdens on the specialty from administrative tasks like prior authorization and quality measurements. As lawmakers tackle these shortages, it is important to recognize that legislation allowing more non-physicians without complete training to provide patient care under limited supervision could risk quality of care and safety instead of leaning into the capabilities of well-trained physicians to lead primary care teams. The primary care workforce shortage won’t be and cannot be solved by allowing non-physicians to diagnose and treat patients independently. Read the full article in Medscape.