Category: Advocacy
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Doctors Unite in Support of Physician Office Exemption
We called and you answered! Thank you to all the physicians who answered the urgent call-to-action and quickly signed on to the Medical Association letter (more than 600 doctors to date!) challenging the Alabama Hospital Association (ALAHA) and its member facilities’ contentions about the appropriateness of the physician office exemption (POE) from CON review. As you know,…
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Letter to Congress: Don’t Give Health Plans Too Much Power
The American Medical Association wrote two letters to Congress to shed light on how physicians feel about the current debate in Washington over surprise billing. We, along with 109 other state medical societies and national specialty societies, co-signed this letter to support the AMA’s efforts. The letters advocate for independent dispute resolution (IDR), a process…
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Medical Association Opposes Scope of Practice Expansion Executive Order
President Trump issued an executive order on October 3, 2019 as an alternative to “Medicare for All”. Initially, the order was titled “Protecting Medicare From Socialist Destruction” but was changed to “Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nation’s Seniors.” The executive order does include some items that the Medical Association of the State of Alabama…
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ALAPAC Ends FY2019 on a High Note
Over the past few months, ALAPAC has been in the midst of its summer fundraising campaign, seeking to raise $75k in 75 days. This week, both the summer campaign and the 2019 giving cycle came to a close. First and foremost, thank you to all the physicians who chose to contribute to ALAPAC this year!…
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Send Us Examples of Misleading Health Advertising
In 2019, the Medical Association drafted and supported, and will be supporting again in 2020, specific “truth in advertising” legislation in Alabama to prohibit misleading health care advertising and require all licensed health professionals to clearly communicate their credentials to patients. These are critical elements to increasing patient education. Thanks to those who’ve already…
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Congress is Tackling Surprise Billing Legislation
12th hour negotiations are taking place in Congress to get Surprise Billing legislation passed before the end of the year. The Medical Association has been engaged on this issue since the beginning of the year advocating for a fair independent dispute resolution process to resolve out of network payment disputes. However the insurance industry has…
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Op-ed: Congress Must End Surprise Medical Billing by Aimee Walsh, M.D.
Congress Must End Surprise Medical Billing By Aimee Walsh, M.D. Counselor, House of Delegates Medical Association of the State of Alabama Past President, Alabama State Society of Anesthesiology Past President, Mobile County Medical Society Far too often, Mobile residents receive an unwelcome surprise in the form of an unexpected, costly medical bill. Patients who think…
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ALAPAC Update: Where Does Your Specialty Rank?
Each week, ALAPAC has been providing updates on our 2019 individual donors. Now, we’d like to provide a snapshot of some of the largest specialties in the Medical Association and the percentage of their member-donors. Below is a chart highlighting these specialties and the current percent of Medical Association members that have donated to ALAPAC.…
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ALAPAC-Supported Charlotte Meadows Wins Primary Runoff
On Tuesday (August 27th), Charlotte Meadows won the primary runoff election for House District 74 with over 55% of the vote. She now heads to the November 12 General Election. As the political action committee of the Medical Association, ALAPAC seeks to elect candidates who best represent the professional needs of physicians and their patients.…
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ALAPAC-Supported Candidate Van Smith Wins Primary Election
Van Smith, the ALAPAC-supported candidate in the HD 42 special election (Chilton and Autauga counties) this week, beat out three other candidates to win the Republican nomination for HD 42. The vacancy was created due to the death of the late Rep. Jimmy Martin (R). Mr. Smith secured 57% of the vote in a four-person race,…