The Medical Association’s Board of Censors met and approved the Association’s 2017 State and Federal Agendas. These agendas were developed with guidance from the House of Delegates and input from individual physician members. As the Alabama Legislature and Congress begin their work for 2017, additional items affecting physicians, medical practices and patients may be added to this list.
2017 STATE AGENDA
The Medical Association supports:
- Ensuring legislation “first do[es] no harm”
- Increasing Medicaid payments for all physicians
- Recruiting and retaining more physicians for Alabama
- Eliminating the health insurance-coverage gap for the working poor
- Ensuring adequate payment for patient care
- Reducing administrative burdens on practices
- Strengthening existing tort reforms and ensuring liability system stability
- Empowering patients and their doctors in medical decisions
- Continued physician compounding, dispensing of drugs
- Emerging practice models that restore physician autonomy
- Same standards and reimbursements for telehealth and face-to-face visits
- Training, education and licensing transparency of health professionals
The Medical Association opposes:
- The radical Patient Compensation System legislation
- Legislation/initiatives encouraging lawsuits against physicians
- Non-physicians setting standards of care
- Legalizing physician-assisted suicide
- Tax increases disproportionately affecting physicians
- Expanding access to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) for law enforcement
- Sale of PDMP data to third parties
- Further expansion of Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements
- Changes to Workers’ Compensation laws that negatively affect treatment of injured workers
2017 FEDERAL AGENDA
The Medical Association supports:
- Repeal of the Affordable Care Act and replacement with a system that:
- Includes meaningful tort reforms that maintain existing state protections
- Preserves employer-based health insurance
- Protects coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions
- Protects coverage for dependents under age 26
- With proper oversight, allows the sale of health insurance across state lines
- Allows for deducting individual health insurance expenses on tax returns
- Increases allowed contributions to health savings accounts
- Ensures access for vulnerable populations
- Ensures universal, catastrophic coverage
- Does not increase uncompensated care
- Does not require adherence with insurance requirements until insurance reimbursement begins
- Reduces administrative and regulatory burdens
- Overhauling federal fraud and abuse programs
- Reforming the RAC program
- Prescription drug abuse education, prevention and treatment initiatives
- Allowing patient private contracting in Medicare
- Expanding veterans’ access to non-VA physicians
- Reducing escalating prescription drug costs
- A patient-centered MACRA framework, including non-punitive and flexible implementation of new MIPS, PQRS and MU requirements
- Congressional reauthorization of CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program)
- Better interstate PDMP connectivity
- Eliminating “pain” as the fifth vital sign
- Repealing the “language interpreters” rule
- Repealing the recent “overtime” rule
- Requiring VA facilities, methadone clinics and suboxone clinics to input prescription data into state PDMPs
The Medical Association opposes:
- Non-physicians setting standards of care
- Publication of Medicare physician payment data
- National medical licensure to supersede state licensure
- Legislation/initiatives encouraging lawsuits against physicians