Academy efforts put family medicine in the spotlight

Increased advocacy efforts from TAFP leadership and staff have resulted in more media coverage in major markets for both the specialty of family medicine and the Academy. Through these outlets, issues of importance to family medicine such as Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and an impending shortage of primary care physicians have been brought into the spotlight.

The October publication of “Fractured: The State of Health Care in Texas” by TAFP and its partners in the Primary Care Coalition spurred the release of press announcements and copies of the report to Texas lawmakers, political publications and most medium and large newspapers in the state. The release garnered a lot of attention including an appearance in Harvey Kronberg’s Quorum Report, a non-partisan newsletter on Texas politics and government. Eugene Stokes, M.D., chairman of the Primary Care Coalition, wrote an editorial letter about the important topics in “Fractured” and the need to address those issues. His letter was published by the Austin American-Statesman and in the online content of the San Antonio Express-News.

Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, penned an editorial in January challenging Gov. Perry to solve the state’s health care crisis. In the editorial, which was released statewide and ran in a number of papers, the senator used facts and themes straight out of “Fractured” and a related Primary Care Coalition policy document on Medicaid.

Furthermore, Tom Banning, TAFP’s director of public affairs, and primary care physician leaders from around the state met with the editorial boards of the San Antonio Express-News, the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Austin American-Statesman and the Houston Chronicle during the end of October and beginning of November. Armed with copies of the report and personal testimonies, these ambassadors carried the message of family medicine to the major news hubs of Texas, helping draw attention to the needs of primary care. The first Fractured-inspired article came from the Dallas Morning News’ editorial board. “For Texans’ sake, physicians need more pay,” appeared in the paper Monday, Nov. 13.

Mark Chassay, M.D., attended the Austin American-Statesman meeting to lend support and testimonial on the problem of the uninsured, Medicaid funding and physician workforce issues.

“At the meeting we seemed to be in agreement from an education point that all the studies show the massive problems now and worsening in the future,” Chassay says. “I think the meeting was a success because the newspaper respects the folks in the trenches and the complexities of the issues.”

When AAFP released its 2006 workforce report, TAFP worked with ABC News and the Houston Chronicle to develop stories concentrating on the key findings. As well as reporting the impending primary care physician shortage and why a shortage could be detrimental to the rapidly increasing, aging population, the Houston Chronicle article voiced Academy recommendations to fix Medicare payment and to urge lawmakers to address other health care issues.

These successful public relations efforts can be partly attributed to a concerted push by TAFP’s leadership over the past few years to increase the voice of family medicine. When AAFP’s Vote for America’s Health Rally received a good amount of news coverage, many TAFP members were interviewed. In an article by the Cox News Service, TAFP President Doug Curran, M.D., and TAFP member and current AAFP Board of Directors member Roland Goertz, M.D., spoke for the specialty.

In the article, Curran highlighted the challenging role of the family physician to provide quality care for patients over the entire course of their lives while also working to stay financially afloat. “I’ve got to pay my bills. I’m a small businessman and I have to make my payroll,” he said in the Cox News article. Curran also raised questions about Medicaid reimbursement in the November edition of the weekly health care news publication Modern Physician.

AAFP called TAFP’s partnership in the Primary Care Coalition a model for other state academies. The PCC unifies the 15,000 physician members of TAFP, the Texas Academy of Internal Medicine Services and the Texas Pediatric Society and together, the group coordinated the data collection and compilation of the “Fractured” report. Coalitions like the PCC enable TAFP to drastically increase its voice, an article in AAFP News Now reported. “A chorus that large tends to be heard in legislative halls, the house of medicine and the news media.”