PAFP sent out the following news release:
Harrisburg, PA—The Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP) unanimously supports the Commonwealth Court petitions filed earlier this month by the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PMS) and the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP), against the state’s Department of Public Welfare and Office of the Budget.
On Wednesday, PAFP’s Board officially adopted a policy statement in support of the two groups and their court petitions:
The PAFP supports the two respective Commonwealth Court petition filings of both the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Medical Society filed in December of 2008, which ask the court to grant declaratory judgment and order the administration to fully fund Mcare abatements as the law intended.
“It’s unfortunate this situation couldn’t be resolved to this point and had to come to this,” said PAFP President Bradley Fox, MD (Erie). “But we want to make it known that we stand united with PMS and HAP and will support them in any way possible. We appreciate their work on behalf of family physicians and all physicians in this state.”
The statement of support aligns with earlier PAFP policy on the Mcare debate:
- The PAFP supports efforts to provide additional access to a medical home for uninsured Pennsylvanians.
- The PAFP supports the phase-out of the Mcare Fund and the continuation of the Mcare Abatement program until this is achieved.
- The PAFP supports changing the current Mcare assessment process to make the abatement program fair to all physicians.
The Mcare abatement program was set up to help with recruiting and retaining physicians here in Pennsylvania.
Diverting the program’s dedicated funding source now could make that goal nearly impossible in the near future, Dr. Fox noted, as physicians would be paying not only for their full $1 million in mandated medical professional liability insurance on the open market, but also forced to pay an extra tax to pay off any unfunded liability of the Mcare Fund.
“No one likes lawsuits, especially physicians,” Dr. Fox continued. “But it seems like this was the last resort in an attempt to resolve this important public health issue. Our goal, in this and everything we do, is to make sure that physicians want to, and can, practice here in Pennsylvania and provide patients the necessary access to primary care.”
Founded in 1948, PAFP is the third largest state chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians and is Pennsylvania’s largest single specialty organization for physicians. The PAFP represents more than 75 percent of the practicing family physicians in the Commonwealth with a membership of about 4,700 physicians, residents and medical students.
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