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Dear Colleagues:
Our Academy has had a momentous year working on the
key issues that affect our membership and our profession. This is a
time of change on many levels from the implications of the Affordable
Care Act on our practices to the slow down on economy, to the desire
of other professions to practice beyond their scope of practice. We
have members who are working at state, local and national levels,
supporting you and your practices.
Alaska has unique challenges compared to other
states. The distances between communities and providers makes sit
down meetings difficult. Despite our large size we have few
providers. As a result as an academy we have few resources. We make
up for this primarily with our Chapter Executive Marilyn Dodd, who is
doing an incredible job with very little. The services we provide as
a chapter and our influence nationally rival many large states.
As proof of this Barb Doty MD was recently voted onto
the Board of the American Academy of Family Physicians. This is a 3
year commitment with the possibility of running for president of the
AAFP. She is engaged in some of the most momentous decisions in our
academy history.
In addition, Mary Ann Foland has been elected
president of the ASMA. Mary Ann is our immediate past president and
one of the most effective political leaders we have. I have been on
the State Medical Board and also serve on a HRSA committee on Rural
health, looking at the implications of the Affordable Care Act on
rural communities.
Several years ago we had decided as a board that the
test of a chapter’s effectiveness was political action. In order for
to be politically effective, all other parts of the academy had to be
working well. We have had some success. This year we testified
against Naturopath prescribing practices. On the other hand, we
attempted to persuade the Governor to accept the federal money for
health care exchanges as part of the ACA to no avail. Unfortunately,
this could have significant financial repercussions.
In September, we have the AAFP Congress of Delegates.
One of the biggest issues there is whether we as family physicians
should continue in the RUC, which is the AMA committee in charge of
setting rates, or whether we should negotiate on our own. This should
prove to be a very contentious debate.
To bolster communications we have resurrected the
newsletter, thanks to Marin Granholm our president elect, started a
Facebook page, and are trying to set up electronic meetings using
Skype.
This is a time of change and there is an election
coming up. I have found this letter difficult to write over this year
as everything was changing so fast it proved difficult to summarize. I
can tell you that there is a lot of interest in what family physicians
think at the national level. There is always interest in what
Alaskans think. Your academy is well placed to have an impact on
policy.
We do need your help. Please check out Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/AKAFP/ and think about being
involved. Most of what we are doing will be posted there first. We
also have a functional committee structure. and there are many jobs
that do not take a lot of time. We are a small chapter and need an
active membership.
John
Cullen M.D., AKAFP President |
