New Resident PAC Members Will Bring APA’s Advocacy Efforts to Trainees

Two new resident members of the APA Political Action Committee (APAPAC)—Sarit Hovav, M.D., and Erica Fasano, M.D.—are determined to make their fellow residents throughout the country aware of the PAC and APA’s advocacy agenda.

Hovav and Fasano were appointed by APA President Renée Binder, M.D., after they applied for openings on the APAPAC Board of Directors and were unanimously elected by other APAPAC Board members.

“We welcome Drs. Hovav and Fasano to the APAPAC Board and know that their passion and talent will make APA’s advocacy effort even more effective,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A. “Our resident members are critical to that effort, as the work done by APAPAC impacts the future particularly for the residents and fellows of psychiatry. We encourage them to become involved in the APAPAC.”

Hovav is a resident in the University of Nebraska-Creighton University joint program. Already active in APA as one of the resident members of the Assembly from Area 4 and chair of the Assembly Committee of Resident-Fellow Member Representatives, she knows the need for member support of APA’s efforts in Congress, the states, and the federal regulatory process.

“There’s a real need for more advocacy,” she said. “When I heard about the opening on the PAC, I thought, ‘This is so exactly me and what I need to do.’ As one of the resident members of the PAC, my focus will be on getting other residents involved. I want to start within my own program, and all the residents I know are getting an envelope and letter asking them if they know about the PAC and if they know about APA’s advocacy efforts. And I will emphasize that even a relatively small contribution can help our efforts.”

She said she would also be reaching out to the rest of the state, as well as other western states. “We are the only residency in the state, so every attending psychiatrist in the state should be donating to the PAC,” she said.

Fasano is chief resident of the University of South Alabama Psychiatry Residency Program. “The reason I applied for the PAC resident-fellow member is to use my passion and personal experience to lobby our leaders, rally support from our members, and raise funds for the PAC, so that we can continue to help our legislators understand how their actions impact the mental health treatment of our patients and the future of our profession,” she told Psychiatric News.

She said she has witnessed up close how political decisions affect access to mental health care. Alabama is one of a number of states that have opted out of expanding the state’s Medicaid program—as is allowable under the Affordable Care Act—while the state’s existing Medicaid budget is threatened with cuts that would dramatically reduce the Medicaid reimbursement rate for physicians.

“One of my objectives is to send a short questionnaire to each chief resident and program director in the eastern United States,” she said. “This will compile tangible data of how budget cuts have affected individual residency programs and their patients. I will use the data to communicate a message to educate both our residents and policy leaders to galvanize support for our mission. Knowledge is power and is ultimately what stimulates change. As psychiatrists and humanitarians, we need to unite to fight for improved funding policies and be the voice of the masses that can’t speak for themselves due to alienation, stigma, and the handicap that is mental illness.”

“These two candidates stood out as having a real passion for advocacy to help ensure the long-term vitality of our profession,” Charles Price, M.D., chair of the APAPAC Board, told Psychiatric News. “They will be a tremendous addition to our Board and will help to engage the APA’s resident members in the PAC and in APA’s advocacy efforts.”

Price said he believes residents and fellows have perhaps the greatest stake of all in APA’s advocacy. “They are the ones whose professional careers will be affected and changed by what happens in the political arena,” he said. “Our trainees and early career psychiatrists should want to have a voice in political affairs today because it is their lives and practice as psychiatrists that will be impacted, for better or worse, going forward.”

APAPAC is a nonpartisan political action committee that represents the profession of psychiatry and mental health care to the U.S. Congress. APAPAC supports candidates regardless of political affiliation.

Through the financial contributions of its members, APAPAC works for the election of congressional candidates who demonstrate support for issues critical to the field psychiatry and psychiatric patients and practice. APAPAC’s goal is to make sure psychiatry is part of the process in determining policies that will impact mental health parity, network adequacy, federal scope of practice standards, Medicare funding, physician payment levels, mental health research, telepsychiatry, and residency education.

Legislative priorities include comprehensive mental health reform, parity, health plan provider network adequacy, research funding, and the psychiatric workforce shortage. ■