SMCMA Physician

SMCMA Goes to Washington

As part of the advocacy component of SMCMA’s mission, President Dr. Alex Ding and Executive Director Keith Darby recently attended the American Medical Association’s National Advocacy Conference in Washington, DC. The conference included an educational component on AMA’s approach to advocacy, featured important insights from industry experts and political insiders, and detailed current national legislative priorities impacting the practice of medicine.

Conference attendees were also urged to conduct Capitol Hill visits to meet with their Congressional Representatives, and SMCMA joined the delegation assembled by the California Medical Association (CMA) to highlight issues specific to healthcare in California. The CMA Delegation met with several California legislators, urging Congress to restore the 2016 and 2019 Medicare payment cuts that were mandated by MACRA payment reform, to fund reinsurance to stabilize the individual insurance market, and to support legislation to study California’s low Medicaid reimbursement rates and the impact on under served communities. Congressional leaders were also urged to provide physicians with regulatory relief by reducing the number of measures reported, simplifying the compliance system, and enforcing EHR interoperability for certified vendors. 

The CMA Delegation also conducted meetings with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), further advocating for physician regulatory relief, expressing concerns with the proposed Medicare Part D method of regulating opioid prescriptions, and providing CMS with the CMA white-paper on safe prescribing of opioids and the Medical Board of California’s guidelines for prescribing controlled substances for pain.

Promoting a unified voice in California as members of the CMA Delegation, SMCMA leadership took an active role in numerous meetings with California Congressional representatives, including Senator Diane Feinstein, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Representative Ami Bera, and policy advisors from the offices of Representatives Jackie Speier and Rho Khanna. 

SMCMA’s involvement in these legislative affairs demonstrates that our reach is not just at the local or state level, but also crosses into the national advocacy domain. Your SMCMA continues to advocate for physician matters, and there is no limit to our scope when it comes to supporting the needs of our members.