The Michigan State Medical Society legislative agenda, as follows:

1. Insurance and Regulatory Advocacy 
   • Support mental health parity
   • Advocate for adequately sized physician networks
   • Regulate narrow networks
   • Appropriate access to telemedicine
   • Advocate regulation of silent PPO/rental networks
   • Reduce unnecessary administrative costs:
     1. Streamlined credentialing
     2. Streamlined claims processing
     3. Reducing benefit variability
   • Oppose attempts to legislatively mandate pay-for-performance
   • Oppose legislative attempts to weaken Michigan’s automobile no-fault insurance laws
   • Seek repeal of the certificate of need
   • Oppose ownership of medical practices by non-physician corporate interests
   • Ensure regulatory changes to individual health insurance market are appropriate and fair to physicians and consumers
   • Support policies to minimize "bad debt" to physician practices
      
2. Public Health and Prevention
   • Restore Michigan's helmet law
   • Support vaccine availability
   • Support wellness incentives
   • Appropriate access to pain medication/reduce prescription drug diversion
   • Reduce childhood environmental hazards
   • Support efforts to reduce unintended pregnancies
   • Support school-based nutrition and exercise standards
      
3. Professional Liability
   • Preserve existing tort reforms
   • Advocate for higher negligence thresholds in medical liability cases
   • Eliminate the lost opportunity doctrine
   • Restore legislative intent of tort reforms related to meaningful caps on non-economic damages
   • Restore legislative intent of tort reforms related to court rules and procedures to level the playing field for physicians
   • Seek pilot projects of medical courts and other non-judicial alternatives to the tort system
   • Advocate liability relief for legislatively mandated standards of practice
      
4. Physician Supply and Training
   • Increase graduate medical education funding at state level
   • Minimize burden of medical school debt
   • Support for a Physician Primary Care Scholarship program
      
5. Medicaid
   • Seek funding parity with Medicare
   • Oppose taxes that are limited only to physicians
   • Seek funding sources that are fair and sustainable
   • Support Medicaid Expansion
   • Tax credits for physicians to encourage participation with Medicaid
   • Ensure access to primary care physicians and sub-specialty physicians
      
6. Insurance Contracting Reform
   • Limit retroactive audit timeframes
   • Support adequate disclosure of fee screens
   • Limit extrapolation of penalties during audits
   • Reform co-pay requirements
   • Support "for-cause" termination
   • Support non-discrimination of qualified physicians
   • Prohibit "all products" clauses
   • Create a reasonable definition of "covered services"
   • Advocate standards for amending contracts
   • Support payment accountability
      
7. Scope of Practice
   • Support education over legislation as the means of increasing scope of practice
   • Oppose independent prescriptive authority by non-physicians
   • Oppose surgical privileges for non-physicians
   • Oppose direct access to physical therapy
   • Support the physician-led team based approach to health care
   • Support patient right-to-know/health professional credentials disclosure
      

For more information about MSMS legislative advocacy, contact Colin Ford.