| APAPAC Events
9/30 - 6:00 p.m. - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
10/1 - 6:00 p.m. - Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) |
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DGR Telephone:
703-907-7800 |
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Follow APA Advocacy on Twitter!
The APA Department of Government Relations is now on Twitter! Now you can find out about APA Advocacy activities, Congressional hearings, mark-ups, and floor votes in real time.
Please click on the following link to start following APA Advocacy Twitter:
http://twitter.com/apa_
advocacy
Questions about the Twitter page or how to set up an account? Please contact Kate McAllister or Jason Pray at advocacy@psych.org. | |
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Finance Committee Continues Marathon Health Reform Mark-Up
The Senate Finance Committee is continuing its second straight week of deliberations as members struggle to reach a consensus about how to reform the nation's health insurance system. On September 22, the Committee began considering amendments to a revised draft bill unveiled the day before by Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). To-date, a number of amendments supported by DGR lobbying efforts have been adopted or were included in the revised "base" bill. These include:
- Requiring all policies offered in the Health Insurance Exchanges to comply with the federal parity law enacted last year (Stabenow, D-MI). This is a major win for APA members and their patients.
- Providing support services and education to women suffering from post-partum depression or psychosis, and authorizing funding for research on the causes and effective treatments for PPD (Menendez, D-NJ).
- Clarifying that individuals with at least one serious and persistent mental illness are explicitly qualified to received services in a Medicaid health home demonstration (Stabenow, D-MI).
- Ensuring that foster children have access to treatment for mental illness and substance use disorders (Stabenow, D-MI).
Senator Baucus is eager to conclude the Finance process and get a reform bill to the Senate floor, but with some 500 amendments pending it is difficult to predict when the Committee will conclude its deliberations. At that point, presumably, the Finance bill will have to be merged with the previously approved Senate HELP Committee reform bill. |
Oklahoma Truth and Transparency Act
Legislation taking effect November 1, 2009 in Oklahoma will require any individual who practices in any branch of the healing arts to include, with any communication, "easily understood words or letters, which clearly show and indicate the branch of the healing arts in which her or she is licensed to practice and is engaged."
Passage of The Patient Safety Transparency Act (House Bill 1569) was a long-term goal of the state's PatientsFIRST Oklahoma Coalition to bring "truth in advertising" to physicians and other practitioners who either advertise in some form of media or post a sign outside an office.
Under the new law's provisions, medical doctors and osteopathic physicians, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists, and chiropractors may refer to themselves as "physician." Practitioners with the degree of Ph.D, Ed.D. or Psy.D who are psychologists, speech pathologists or audiologists may use the word "doctor" to describe themselves.
Anyone found to be in violation of provisions of the act or any "deceptive or misleading statement or act" is subject to fines up to $1000.
The PatientsFIRST Oklahoma is a coalition of 12 medical specialty organizations representing more than 7,000 Oklahoma medical and osteopathic physicians. In addition to the Oklahoma Psychiatric Physicians Association, members include the Oklahoma State Medical Association, Oklahoma Osteopathic Association, and the Oklahoma chapters of the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Oklahoma Academy of Ophthalmology among others.
The action by the Oklahoma Legislature will help buttress APA-supported efforts to pars a similar federal law. |
AMA Guides Physicians on New HIPAA Breach Notification Requirements
New regulations effective September 23, 2009 require all physicians who are covered by HIPAA to notify patients if there are breaches of security involving their medical information. The following summarizes these new requirements. These requirements apply in addition to any notification obligations imposed by state law and also supplement the obligations imposed by the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules.
If you would like to read more please click the link below:
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House Members Urge Timely Release of Parity Regulations
Seventy-five members from both political parties in the House of Representatives joined Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) in signing a letter to the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury urging them to ensure the prompt and timely issuing of regulations to implement last year's parity law. This is an unusually large number of cosigners on a regulatory issue. The letter highlighted specific policy recommendations consistent with APA's own comments, filed earlier this year. Notably, the signers observe that "'Separate but equal' is not parity: Separate deductible caps for medical/surgical and mental (health) presents a significant barrier to treatment, is discriminatory, and should be prohibited" and that the refusal of plans to reimburse for medically appropriate mental health and substance use disorder treatment violates the law and should be barred. DGR staff actively assisted in the effort to secure cosigners. | |
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