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: Urge Congress to Prioritize Family Medicine in Funding Package
Source: The American Academy of Family Physicians
The American Academy of Family Physicians is asking members to join its efforts in prioritizing family medicine. Congress has until Friday, March 14, to pass a funding package that addresses critical issues affecting family medicine and the patients you serve. Contact your members of Congress and urge them to include relief to offset the 2.8% cut to Medicare physician payment, ensure adequate funding for the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) Program, and make certain COVID-era telehealth flexibilities permanent.
Medicare Physician Payment Cut
A 2.8% reduction in Medicare physician payment threatens the financial stability of family practices across the nation. Such cuts will compromise the ability to provide quality care to Medicare beneficiaries.
The THCGME Program Funding
The THCGME Program is essential for training the next generation of primary care physicians. Without adequate funding, this program – and the future of family medicine – faces significant jeopardy.
Pandemic Telehealth Flexibilities
Many pandemic telehealth flexibilities are set to expire on Monday, March 31. This means that several telehealth services, which have been widely accessible due to temporary regulations during the COVID-19 public health emergency, may face additional restrictions or become unavailable after this date. Absent further action, these vital services may be at risk.
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.
Ohio Senate Considers Recreational Cannabis Reform
Source: Health Policy Institute of Ohio
The Ohio Senate has resurrected a proposal that overhauls the state’s relatively young recreational marijuana program, in part by raising the excise tax on all product sales from 10% to 15%.
Introduced recently by Senator Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City, OH), Senate Bill (SB) 56 closely mirrors a 2023 bill that cleared the chamber, merging the state’s medical and adult-use programs.
SB 56 strictly prohibits smoking cannabis in public, limiting Ohioans to partaking in private residences, and reduces home grow from 12 plants or less to six plants or less. It also limits how concentrated dispensaries’ THC products can be — maxing out at 35% for plant products and 70% for concentrates and extracts.
All related tax revenue would redirect to the state’s General Revenue Fund (GRF), unlike current law, which has pools of funds that go toward different purposes, like to local municipalities with dispensaries or to a social equity and jobs program that the bill also abolishes.
AAFP Launches New Advocacy Ambassador Program
Source: The American Academy of Family Physicians
January 31 marked the formal launch of the new American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Advocacy Ambassador Program, formerly known as the Key Contacts program. AAFP members are invited to join the fight for family medicine by participating in the 365 Advocacy Ambassador Path.
Advocacy Ambassadors are family physicians who use their medical expertise and respected community roles to raise awareness, engage with stakeholders, and drive action on healthcare policies and issues critical to their clinical practice and medical profession.
The 365 Advocacy Ambassador Path consists of four levels of ambassadorship: green, teal, orange and blue. Each level has a series of tasks designed to further grassroots engagement and build relationships with policymakers. After completing each level, Advocacy Ambassadors will receive a completion gift.
In addition, Advocacy Ambassadors will meet on a quarterly basis. The first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1, at 2 p.m. ET. Visit the AAFP website to join and grow your impact on family medicine!
Interested in learning more? Register to attend an upcoming webinar on Tuesday, February 25, at 7 p.m. ET.
For questions or more information regarding Advocacy Ambassadors, please contact Rebecca King.
What’s Really Going On in D.C. Right Now and What We’re Doing About It
Source: AAFP EVP & CEO Shawn Martin
Recently the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) had begun a busy advocacy agenda. Even since then, there’s been a lot of activity in the Capitol. Following is an update on where things stand.
New Congress
The 119t Congress convened January 3, and kicked off what the body always does in its opening few weeks: Lawmakers iron out committee assignments and put the finishing touches on their legislative priorities. When a new Congress coincides with a new presidential administration, the U.S. Senate also carries out its important “advise and consent” role, overseeing cabinet and agency appointments made by the incoming president.
As it always does at such times, the AAFP’s Government Relations staff is right now in direct conversation with the key committees working on the administration’s healthcare nominations, including the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. In these conversations, we are focused on several important themes, including the qualifications we believe are necessary for these positions.
- Obtaining responses on issues of importance to family medicine to ensure that answers are heard and on record, and
- Reminding members of these committees that we intend to hold them accountable for thoroughly vetting the nominees.
Again, irrespective of the outcome of these nominations, the AAFP will engage with whomever assumes these roles and will continue to lift up the critical role family physicians play in the care you deliver to your patients and the communities you serve.
Presidential Transition
Every four to eight years, the United States goes through one of the greatest experiments of our democratic system, the transition of the presidency. On January 20, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president — and only the second in history to secure a non-consecutive second term. (The first was Grover Cleveland.)
Any change of administration produces some disruption. Right now, some things that appear chaotic are in fact consistent with transition-period norms. Let me clarify how.
Every president since the creation of our democratic system has initiated a series of executive actions within hours of assuming office. These come in the form of “executive orders,” and they serve a few purposes. First, they are, collectively, a vehicle to outline the overall stance of the incoming administration. Second, and in line with that positioning, such orders sometimes reverse executive orders made by previous presidents. Third, they can serve as broad rulemaking and guidance for the federal agencies under the authority of the executive branch.
It’s important to say that executive orders have been used by all presidents, and that these actions are subject to legal interpretation; in some cases, they exceed presidential authority and are overturned.
Beyond recent executive orders you’ve seen covered in the news in recent days, other actions by the new administration have caused confusion but nevertheless don’t depart radically from precedent. These include a freeze on publishing pending regulations in the Federal Register, a temporary halt to external agency communications and a federal hiring freeze. These steps allow the incoming president to get a handle on the core functions of government, including political appointments and staffing. With the change of administration generally comes the departure of about a thousand personnel; those positions take time to fill.
Ahead of January 20, the AAFP team closely monitored the presidential transition. Many of the executive orders announced in the first hours of the new administration were in line with reports we had received as the inauguration neared. We are carefully reviewing each order to understand their policy impacts and, more specifically, their implications for family physicians. It is through this process that we determine — now, as we have when working with past administrations — whether and how we will respond, and by which levers of advocacy.
Advocacy Engagement
One such lever is big and basic and should be a comfort to AAFP members: Policymakers understand and value the Academy as a trusted source on healthcare and health policy. This is particularly true across the regulations and laws that affect the specialty of family medicine and its role in the nation’s primary care healthcare system. We achieved this position in large part because we take a careful, deliberative approach to our advocacy — always with the goal of ensuring that the Academy has a seat at the table.
The AAFP’s Government Relations team follows criteria to determine its engagement on critical policy issues and employs an array of tactics. These include direct lobbying, coalition engagement, public communications, and member advocacy. Absence of public engagement doesn’t mean were not working on an issue. Some of our greatest advocacy often occurs in ways that go unseen by the public. Know that our advocacy conveys the AAFP’s values and views, and works to see them incorporated into policy without jeopardizing other areas of focus. We are judicious about how and when we weigh in with legislators and regulators so can we preserve our authority and exert maximum influence to shift policy.
Lawmakers and regulators are not always going to agree with our stances on key policy issues. We do not shut the door on those individuals because of those differing viewpoints. In a democratic system of government that allows for a broad range of viewpoints and differing philosophies, the art of advocacy is being able to offer education and shape thinking as we work to bring understanding. Practicing this art over the long term, the AAFP is able to shift viewpoints and find opportunity.
Meanwhile, it remains the AAFP’s goal to take into account the perspectives of all its members. When we achieve this, we are united as the specialty of family medicine.