See What the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Federal Advocacy Team Has Been Working On.
President-Elect Testifies on Medicare Payment
On October 19, 2023, AAFP President-Elect Steven Furr, MD, FAAFP, testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health during a hearing titled, “What’s the Prognosis?: Examining Medicare Proposals to Improve Patient Access to Care & Minimize Red Tape for Doctors.” The hearing highlighted two of the most pressing issues impacting physicians and workforce shortages: inadequate Medicare payment and overwhelming administrative burden. Read Furr’s testimony.
Family Physicians Continue to Support G2211 Add-on Code
Medicare physician billing code G2211—set to go into full effect in 2024—is designed to pay more accurately for the complex, high-value visits that primary care physicians provide as part of a continuous relationship with a patient. Better payment equals better patient access and outcomes. Unfortunately, this important policy has attracted opposition (read G2211 myths vs. facts).
What we’re working on:
- The AAFP continues to call on Congress to end unsustainable physician payment cuts by enacting an annual inflationary update, reform arbitrary Medicare budget neutrality requirements and invest in community-based primary care.
- The AAFP also recently submitted recommendations to the House Ways and Means Committee on rural health, highlighting the need for sweeping Medicare payment reform.
AAFP Advocates for Primary Care Workforce Legislation
The U.S. faces a projected physician shortage of up to 124,000 physicians by 2034, with demand for physicians outpacing supply, and the Health Resources and Services Administration estimates that, by 2025, there will be a shortage of more than 250,000 mental health professionals.
What we’re working on:
- The AAFP and American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, American Osteopathic Association and American Psychiatric Association wrote a joint opinion editorial in STAT News, urging Congress to invest in a strong primary care workforce.
- AAFP Executive Vice President and CEO R. Shawn Martin and Families USA Executive Director Frederick Isasi wrote in the Baltimore Sun about the importance of reauthorizing the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program, which trains physicians in underserved communities and encourages them to practice in those same communities post-training.
- AAFP members and family physicians spoke to STAT News about the ramifications and realities of the primary care physician workforce shortage in rural communities.
- The AAFP continues to support the bipartisan Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, which includes reauthorization for seven years of the THCGME program and will ensure that Medicare and its beneficiaries are paying the same rates for physician-administered drugs in off-campus hospital outpatient departments as they do in physician offices.
AAFP Weighs in on Mental Health Parity
Family physicians provide longitudinal care across a patient’s lifespan, which often includes comprehensive mental health services and, when needed, care coordination with other mental health professionals. However, coverage of mental health services and network adequacy remains an issue, preventing patients from receiving specialized care and requiring primary care physicians to fill the gap while navigating timely, burdensome referral processes.
What we’re working on:
- The AAFP has long advocated for mental health parity to improve access to care and ensure that physicians have the tools and resources they need to address unmet mental health needs and successfully integrate behavioral health care into primary care.
- The U.S. Departments of Treasury, Labor and Health and Human Services released a proposed rule on mental health parity, specifically focused on improving coverage and payment. In our comments on the proposal, the AAFP applauded the steps to ensure that plans and issuers are providing appropriate behavioral health benefits and access to care and provided recommendations on establishing guardrails, metrics and more.
AAFP Provides Recommendations for Standards of Care
While the AAFP supports a wide variety of efforts by policymakers to improve access to health care services, we believe physician-led, team-based primary care is what’s best for patient care and outcomes.
What we’re working on:
The AAFP wrote to Secretary Denis McDonough of the Department of Veteran Affairs to urge the agency to:
- prioritize veterans’ safety and health outcomes by retaining scope of practice safeguards;
- ensure physician-led, team-based primary care provided through the successful Patient Aligned Care Team model remains a priority and is not disrupted by the development of national standards of practice;
- maintain safeguards that will prevent non-physician practitioners from performing services and procedures that are outside the scope of their licensure and for which they are not appropriately trained; and
- support veterans’ longitudinal patient-physician relationships and care continuity by integrating pharmacists into the primary care team, which would allow them to appropriately address issues of medication use and tolerability, patterns of medication use and dosing adjustments.
For the latest policy updates impacting family medicine, follow AAFP Advocacy at @aafp_advocacy.
Post author: American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
