AMA/COMPAC luncheon

Tuesday, November 01, 2016 12:25 AM

Physicians honor two exemplary state legislators, hear forecast of post-election climate

by Kate Alfano, CMS Communications Coordinator

L-R: COMPAC Chair Mark B. Johnson, MD; CMS General Counsel Susan Koontz, JD; Sen. Chris Holbert; Rep. Angela Williams; and CMS lobbyist Jerry Johnson.

COMPAC honored two exemplary state legislators at the 2016 AMA/COMPAC luncheon held during the CMS Annual Meeting in September: Sen. Chris Holbert, a Douglas County Republican and chair of the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee, and Rep. Angela Williams, a Denver Democrat and chair of the House Business Committee and the Legislative Black Caucus. Williams was recently elected to the state Senate seat vacated by her term-limited successor. They received the “Champions of Physicians and Patients” award.

Mark B. Johnson, MD, COMPAC chair, introduced them by speaking about the ideals of politicians: to have moral courage under pressure, principled stands and skilled advocacy. “These two highly regarded legislators personify these ideals, manifested in this circumstance on health care policy conflicts of immense importance to the medical community.”

“Sen. Holbert has been central to diverting to an interim discussion a health plan initiative that would have capped and indexed out-of-network charges, and applied his considerable influence and policy knowledge to persuade the plans and state regulators to take a broader view,” Johnson said. “He sees the long game, and will undoubtedly lead the next iteration of this debate on setting the guidelines for fair, transparent rules of engagement as the plans build and manage their networks.”

“Rep. Williams is a comparable profile in political courage, steadfastly taking the defendant’s position in pretty much every effort by Colorado’s trial attorneys to expand liability or dismantle current protections and process in Colorado tort law. She carried our requested legislation from our Clean Claims Task Force and is an advocate for a range of CMS-supported public health and safety initiatives, more recently the 72-hour mental hold bill,” Johnson said.

Both legislators thanked COMPAC for the honor and spoke of their willingness to work across the aisle and with physicians to affect good legislation for Colorado patients. “We want to make sure that we work with you to have good health care systems that protect physicians and the relationship with your patients,” Williams said.

Following the awards were presentations from distinguished political experts. Floyd Ciruli, Ciruli Associates, provides consulting, strategy, policy management, public opinion research, public relations and management to a host of public policy projects and clients. He gave an engaging presentation drawing on his decades of experiences and then-current polls to forecast how the U.S. presidential election will affect candidates and proposals far down the ballot.

Richard Deem is the senior vice president of the American Medical Association Advocacy Group. In this capacity, he directs the AMA’s federal, state and private sector advocacy efforts, as well as the organization’s health policy functions. He gave a useful perspective of how the election would affect the federal agenda in 2017, as well as House and Senate dynamics, leadership changes, and political realities and aspirations. The elections were bound to influence the policy environment, physicians’ practices and the future direction of health reform.

Jerry Johnson, CEO, Johnson Consulting Companies, has worked as a contract lobbyist for CMS for the past 26 years. He applied the analyses from Ciruli and Deem down to the state level to specifically speak about state races and probable issues the legislature will face in 2017.

“I thought the panel covered a wide range of information to prepare physicians for the post-election environment – federal and state – with excellent context by the state pollster, a solid assessment of state races by your lobbyist and, hopefully, a useful perspective of the federal policy agenda in 2017,” Deem said.

COMPAC will need support going into 2017 to continue to affect positive change for physicians. To join COMPAC, go to www.cms.org/contribute.