Advocacy Successes
Physician Advocacy Successes
Good health policy is made with physicians in the discussion.
MSDC, working with its members, partners, and other organizations, has won major policy victories to help its members practice medicine. Below is a sampling of those victories. Do you want to be a vital part of the next policy victory helping improve the health of the District? Contact us today.
Opioid Policy
- MSDC was added to the opioid fund oversight panel by the Council in its legislation authorizing the oversight body
Scope of Practice
- MSDC supported legislation to ban the sale of flavored electronic smoking devices and restrict the sale of electronic smoking devices.
- Working with a coalition, MSDC added funding to the DC budget to support the hiring of more license specialists to help with the delay in processing medical licenses.
Women's Health
- B24-143, to regulate certified midwives, passed the Council with MSDC's support
Health Equity
- Mayor Muriel Bowser signs into law the Electronic Medical Order for Scope of Treatment Registry Amendment Act of 2019. The eMOST Registry Amendment Act permits the creation of an electronic database of advanced directive wishes for District residents that can be tied into the health information exchange.
- Mayor Bowser signs into law the School Sunscreen Safety Temporary Amendment Act of 2019. The bill permits students to bring and apply sunscreen during the 2019-2020 school year.
- MSDC comments on the importance of funding United Medical Center (UMC) and health facilities in Wards 7 and 8 in the mayor's budget. Those comments are used almost verbatim in CM Trayon White's comments advocating for funding of United Medical Center.
Scope of Practice
- DC Health publishes draft regulations removing the 3 mandatory CME hours for HIV/AIDS awareness and replaces them with a requirement to fulfill 10% of mandatory CME hours with a topic from a public health priority list. DC Health then waived the requirement for 2020.
- The Strengthening Reproductive Health Protections Act of 2020 is signed into law with MSDC support. The bill prohibits government interference in reproductive decisions between a patient and doctor, and prohibits employers from penalizing physicians for practicing reproductive medicine outside of their work hours.
- The Mayor's Commission on Healthcare Systems Transformation releases its final recommendations. One recommendation is for the District to explore options to make providing health care more affordable, including financial relief for higher malpractice insurance rates.
- The Council removes "telephone" from the list of prohibited types of telemedicine to allow physicians and other providers to be reimbursed for telephone telemedicine appointments after MSDC and health community advocacy.
- MSDC worked with the Council to modify onerous language in the Health Care Reporting Amendment Act that potentially would have penalized physicians from seeking help for substance abuse or addiction issues.
Opioid/Drug Policy
- The Department of Health Care Finance (DHCF) waives prior authorization for key medication assisted treatments (MAT) treating substance use disorder patients in Medicaid.
- The Mayor signed into law The Access to Biosimilars Amendment Act of 2019, a top MSDC priority as it would help prescribers to prescribe more cost-effective drugs for patients.
Behavioral Health
- The Behavioral Health Parity Act of 2017, a major priority for MSDC and DCPA, officially becomes law. The legislation requires all health benefit plans offered by an insurance carrier to meet the federal requirements of the Wellstone/Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.
Health Equity
- The District Council passes B22-1001, The Health Insurance Marketplace Improvement Amendment Act of 2018. The bill prohibits the sale of Short Term, Limited Duration health plans and Association Health Plans (AHPs) in the DC Health Benefits Exchange.
Scope of Practice
- DC joins 28 other states in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact with B22-177 becoming law. The IMLC is designed to ease physician licensure in multiple states.
Women's Health
- The Maternal Mortality Review Committee is established by law. The Committee is responsible for finding solutions to maternal health crisis in the District. District physicians are an important part of this vital committee.
- B22-106, The Defending Access to Women's Health Care Services Amendment Act, becomes law. The act requires insurers to cover health care services like breast cancer screening and STI screenings without cost-sharing.
Opioid Policy
- Right before the Council adjourned for the session, it passed B21-32, the Specialty Drug Copayment Limitation Act. The bill limits cost shifting by payers for prescription drugs.
Behavioral Health
- B21-0007 passes the Council. The Behavioral Health Coordination of Care Amendment Act of 2016 permitted the disclosing of mental health information between a mental health facility and the health professional caring for the patient.
Women's Health
- MSDC was proud to have worked on B21-20. The law requires payers to cover up to 12 months of prescription contraception, advancing women's health and equality.
Why MSDC Created a Mentoring Program, and How You Can Participate
A mentor enables a person to achieve. A hero shows what achievement looks like.
John Cromwell Mather
Almost one year ago, I was sworn in as president of the Medical Society of DC. That night at the AIA, I shared my goals for my twelve
months as president, including the creation of a new DC physician mentoring program.
As our 2022 annual meeting approaches, I wanted to share how you can help build a sustainable mentorship program. This is the Society’s way of supporting our next generation of physicians and continuing to make DC the best place to practice medicine.
How to join the mentorship program
The program is open to all MSDC members.
If you are a medical student in the DC area, make sure you are signed up as an MSDC member to receive the latest news about the program. It’s complimentary. To become a mentee, email hay@msdc.org to join the mentee list and receive instructions on how we will pair mentors and mentees
If you are an academic attending, work in private practice or for a large corporation, or a non-practicing physician who believes you can give back to the next generation of physician leaders, use this convenient form to share your interest and expertise.
How the program works
MSDC is working with area medical schools to spread the word about the program. Once we have a list of mentors and mentees, we will offer mentees information about mentors that meet their profile or interests. The mentee can contact the potential mentor and arrange a call, meeting, or coffee.
All mentors indicate their time available to serve as mentors, allowing mentees to know how often they can expect to meet with their mentor and plan accordingly. In addition to specialty, mentors are asked to share their areas of interest for mentoring, to allow for mentoring in areas like LGBTQ medicine, underrepresented communities, and advocacy areas.
In the future, as the program evolves, MSDC may open the program up to group or online mentoring.
Why is MSDC creating a mentoring program?
Why is MSDC creating this program now, when many specialty organizations have their own mentoring programs for students? For the same reason we have our other activities – to unite the District’s medical community regardless of specialty.
We know that many students have a specialty in mind but want to expand their network beyond just their medical cohort. They may want to learn from someone of a different medical experience, to explore other specialties or to build their network prior to practice.
Students (and mentors) also may want mentoring in areas other than practice. Physicians from underrepresented communities, the LGBTQ community, and women physicians all benefit professionally from mentorship to allow them to create a support network regardless of specialty.
The District is also a hub of medical brilliance and expertise. Simply allowing students access to this community – especially those outside of their school – makes these students better physicians and allows mentors to share hard-earned knowledge to the next generation.
To make DC the best place to practice medicine, we need to create a continuous conduit of experience and information from one generation to the next. MSDC’s mentorship program does this – regardless of specialty, school, or location in DC.