Since reporting to
the Board in November 2002, the ACPM
Policy Committee and policy staff have
focused on: (1) implementing resolutions
adopted by the ACPM Board in 2002, (2)
continuing to advocate for preventive
medicine residency funding, (3) preparing
for and participating in the AMA House of
Delegates meeting, (4) preparing for
ACPM’s upcoming Open Policy Forum, (5)
continuing to implement the Job Market
Initiative, and (6) administering the
Pfizer Practicum Rotation in Health Policy
and Preventive Medicine.
Implementing ACPM Resolutions
ACPM is continuing
to develop a policy statement on health
insurance reform pursuant to Policy
2002-046 (C), Health Insurance for All,
passed by the Board of Regents at its
February 2002 meeting. The Policy
Subcommittee on Health Insurance, chaired
by Dr. Mark Johnson, has been working on a
draft statement for consideration by the
full Policy Committee at its February
meeting. The subcommittee recently held
its second conference call to discuss
working drafts of the major elements of
the statement—benefits coverage, access,
and financing/regulation—and to develop a
plan for pulling together the elements
into a consolidated statement. The first
draft of the statement will be presented
to the full Policy Committee for review at
its February meeting and, depending on
what action the committee takes, made
available to the Board for discussion at
its meeting.
At its November
2002 meeting, the Board of Regents adopted
ACPM Policy 2002-059 (C), Availability and
Distribution of Potassium Iodide (KI) for
Ionizing Radiation Emergencies, originally
submitted in conjunction with the February
2002 Open Policy Forum (Resolution
04-02(A)). Since the November meeting,
ACPM has completed work on the development
of a radiation exposure and KI web page
(incorporating the new policy statement)
and added a link to the page on ACPM’s
bioterrorism web page (see
http://www.acpm.org/bioterrorism.htm
) ACPM has used this page in
its I-131 education work.
Policy 2002-022
(C), Consultative Preventive Medicine,
remains a low priority in light of
conflicting demands for resources, until
further notice by the ACPM President and
Policy Committee Chair.
Advocacy for Preventive Medicine
Residency Training
ACPM has continued
targeted advocacy activities aimed at
increasing or maintaining funding for
preventive medicine residency (PMR) and
other health professions programs.
Activities have mainly focused on
restoring funding for Title VII health
professions programs (including preventive
medicine residency training) in the FY
2003 budget, which has yet to be
completed. The federal government is
continuing to operate under a continuing
resolution that holds spending at FY 2002
levels until the FY 2003 budget is
passed. When Congress adjourned before
the November elections, funding for these
programs was in serious jeopardy.
ACPM
has organized a letter-writing campaign
with several PMR program
directors/residents who are recipients of
Title VII funding (see Attachment A for
sample letter). The outlook for Title VII
funding improved considerably on January
23, when the Senate approved a $391
billion omnibus FY 2003 spending bill
covering all non-defense discretionary
spending, including Labor/HHS/Education
appropriations. The bill holds funding for
the Title VII health professions
programs—including the line item from
which PMR programs are supported—at their
FY ’02 levels. The measure currently is
being considered by a House-Senate
conference, where negotiators will decide
the final funding levels for FY ’03.
The FY ’04 funding
cycle is well underway, as the President
recently released his budget proposal.
Not surprisingly, health professions
programs are cut significantly again. The
Office of Management and Budget, which
helps develop the President’s budget
request, considers these programs
ineffective and is aiming to phase them
out.
ACPM is developing
a proposal to HRSA to fund the development
and testing of a bioterrorism curriculum
for preventive medicine residents. It is
anticipated HRSA soon will make available
more than $50 million for training health
professionals in bioterrorism preparedness
and response.
AMA House of Delegates
ACPM was
an active participant in the AMA House of
Delegates (HOD) 2002 Interim meeting in
New Orleans in December. This year marked
the launch of a new format for the Interim
meeting, focusing exclusively on advocacy
and legislation. ACPM did not sponsor any
resolutions, although its representatives
weighed in on several reports/resolutions
addressing: quality improvement, health
care coverage, eliminating racial and
ethnic disparities, smallpox vaccination,
homeland and global public health
security, leadership in medicine and
public health, and post-exposure HIV
testing. The HOD’s main focus at the
meeting was on the Medicare payment rate
cuts, medical liability reform, and the
proposal to transform the AMA into an
organization of organizations.
ACPM
Resolutions / Open Policy Forum
ACPM has been
preparing for the third installment of its
Open Policy Forum at Preventive
Medicine 2003 in San Diego. ACPM
issued a call to members for policy
resolutions in its December and January
issues of ACPM Headlines and on the
ACPM web site. The solicitation also was
targeted to specific ACPM committees
(e.g., policy, environmental health,
etc.).
ACPM
received only two resolutions for
consideration at this year’s policy forum:
-
01-03 –
Patient Safety
-
02-03 –
The Abolition of Symptomatic Coronary
Artery Disease
Both
resolutions have been vetted through the
Policy Committee via the listserv and
authors have made changes accordingly.
After discussions with the Policy
Committee chair, ACPM has decided to add
the health insurance draft policy paper to
the Open Forum agenda to help the Policy
Committee in its deliberations on this
complex issue. The Policy Committee will
consider the discussion and comments
shared on each resolution during the open
forum and through other means and make
recommendations to the Board for final
action.
Job
Market Initiative (JMI)
The
ACPM/AAPHP Job Market Initiative (JMI)
continues to increase the number of job
postings suitable for preventive medicine
physicians on its JMI web page (http://www.acpm.org/jobs.htm).
In the 30-day period ending January 15,
2003, the JMI web page listed 50 job
announcements submitted directly to AAPHP/ACPM
and abstracted an additional 191 ads from
leading medical and public health
journals. The number of visits to the job
site are now averaging 500-600 per month.
(See Attachment B for a copy of the latest
JMI Update.)
Dr. Joel
Nitzkin, JMI Chair, has proposed a
standardized list of "career tracks"
within the specialty of preventive
medicine to be used for categorizing the
JMI job listings and for outreach to
prospective employers, policy makers,
etc. Dr. Nitzkin presented the proposed
list to the Policy Committee and PMR
directors in November, and has since
modified the list to reflect input
received from those groups. The revised
list
will be discussed at the PMR directors
workshop and ACPM Policy Committee meeting
in San Diego, with the goal of
recommending the list to the AAPHP and
ACPM Boards for adoption at their
respective meetings at Preventive
Medicine 2003.
Pfizer Practicum Rotation
Three
residents have successfully completed
their Pfizer Practicum Rotation in Health
Policy and Preventive Medicine, based at
ACPM, and a fourth began her rotation in
January. Since the last report to the
Board, Sreedhar Mandayam, MD, MRCP, a
resident at the University of Texas
Medical Branch, completed a two-month
rotation at the College and Yvonne Y.
Chan, MD, MA, from the University of
Michigan, is now participating in the
program and will be at ACPM through March
2003. A fifth resident—Jason M.M.
Spangler, MD, MPH, from the Johns Hopkins
University—is scheduled to do a practicum
rotation at the College in May and June
2003. (See Attachment C for a recent
program progress report.)
Other
·
See Attachment D for the
contents of ACPM’s policy compendium since
the October 2002 report.
·
See Attachment E for the
2002 Policy Committee objectives and
status of each. The Policy Committee at
its February meeting will consider new
objectives for 2003. These will be made
available to the Board following the
committee’s deliberations and review.
