Advocacy Agenda Advances Patient, Professional Issues
Current priorities include enactment of APA-developed federal legislation to end discriminatory insurance coverage of treatment of mental illness; an overhaul of Medicare’s outdated coverage of mental health services, including the elimination of the discriminatory 50 percent coinsurance for outpatient psychiatric services (again via APA-developed legislation) and the limited 190-day lifetime reserve on inpatient treatment in psychiatric hospitals; increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs health care and medical research programs; protection of patient medical-records privacy; payment increases for psychiatrists as part of overall Medicare payments to physicians; sustained increased funding for psychiatric research; and improvements to the nation’s public mental health system and protection of access to services for low-income and severely ill individuals through the Medicaid program.
DGR, with other APA divisions, worked closely with the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health as it prepared its final report. For example, APA testified before the commission, hosted a meeting with APA leadership and Commission Chair Michael F. Hogan, Ph.D., and supplied the commission with the APA task force report “A Vision for the Mental Health System.”
With the administration’s release of the final report, DGR is following up with the administration and Congress, using the APA vision statement and the administration’s report as a springboard to action.
DGR also advocates for strong privacy protections for medical records and supports the Stop Taking Our Health Privacy (STOHP) Act, introduced by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.). DGR has provided staff support for an electronic bulletin board where members can ask questions about HIPAA, view questions asked by their colleagues, and read the answers prepared by consultants with HIPAA expertise. To access educational materials or the HIPAA electronic bulletin board, click on the “Members Corner” link in the top right corner of APA’s homepage at www.psych.org.
DGR also provides active staff support to district branches (DBs) and state associations (SAs) to help our members respond to professional challenges.
The DGR State Affairs Program counsels DB/SA officers, staff, and lobbyists and APA components on state legislative, regulatory, and political strategy. For example, in the 2003 legislative sessions, psychologist prescribing bills were introduced in nine states: Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. Outstanding work by DB members and DGR staff defeated or contained all of these bills and blocked the introduction of legislation in Arizona and Maine. The State Affairs Program also provides a clearinghouse of resources on psychiatric and related health care policy issues in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Staff also provides on-site advocacy training at no charge to the DBs/SAs.
DGR also provides staff support to many APA councils and their committees, including the Council on Advocacy and Public Policy, Council on Psychiatry and Law, Committee on Judicial Action, Council on Aging, and the APA-AMA delegation. Of special note, the Committee on Advocacy Litigation Funding (CALF) is charged with reviewing requests, usually from DBs/SAs, for financial support of projects involving legislation, litigation, and advocacy and with making recommendations regarding funding support for review by the Board of Trustees.
DGR also strives to enhance the scientific basis of psychiatry and raise awareness about mental illness on Capitol Hill. Every fall, APA and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill cohost the Mental Illness Awareness Week Congressional Symposium for members of Congress and their staffs. The symposium was established to focus on timely issues affecting the mentally ill and those who care for and about them and to highlight research advances in prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of mental illness.
Similarly, DGR provides significant support for the Academic Consortium, founded in 1983 by Lewis Judd, M.D., and David Kupfer, M.D., to advocate for expanded federal research of mental illness, substance abuse, and alcoholism. The consortium has been a major factor in APA’s successful efforts to highlight importance of research and education to the Congress and to sustain funding increases. DGR also has coordinated numerous meetings with the new leadership of the National Institutes of Health to further APA research, education, and advocacy priorities.
In addition, DGR assists the American Psychiatric Foundation in administering several annual fellowships for APA members and is responsible for the placement of the winners of the Daniel X. Freedman, M.D., Congressional Fellowship and the Jeanne M. Spurlock, M.D., Congressional Fellowship, both of which focus on public policy and its impact on patient care.
APA’s corporate reorganization enabled us to enhance its patient and professional advocacy activities by establishing a political action committee that allows APA to educate and lobby members of Congress. The American Psychiatric Association Political Action Committee (APAPAC) is the political voice for psychiatry. APAPAC works to ensure the election of members of Congress who share mutual principles and goals with APA and who stand up for psychiatry’s position during the legislative process. APAPAC also educates other members of Congress on why they should support our patients and our profession.
Keeping our members informed and enabling you to take action in support of patients and the profession are incredibly important to APA. Because grass-roots advocacy is a critical part of APA’s legislative and regulatory strategy, DGR created an interactive online advocacy tool that members can use to contact by letter or e-mail their U.S. senators and representatives, in addition to all 50 governors and members of state legislatures. You’ll find APA’s “Advocacy Action Center” online at http://capwiz.com/psych/home. By entering your ZIP code, you can view your elected officials’ photos, get phone numbers and e-mail addresses, identify key staff assistants, and check committee assignments and voting records. You can also find contact information for local and national news media.
To keep informed of all legislative and regulatory developments, you can join the DGRNet-PsychImage list serve, an e-mail communication tool geared to legislative and public affairs issues. DGR coordinates grass-roots efforts through the list serve by distributing action alerts, updates, and news releases. DGR also utilizes the APA Web site to keep you informed. In the “Advocacy” homepage section, you can access the latest information on important congressional issues concerning psychiatry and your patients. Through the online “Advocacy Action Center,” you can get involved as grass-roots activists and write to your members of Congress on current issues. Call DGR staff at (888) 35-PSYCH or log on and give advocacy a try.
I welcome your questions, comments, and/or suggestions. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]. ▪
