DO leaders work to enact policy changes at state level

Across the country, DOs and state osteopathic associations are driving meaningful policy changes around issues like scope of practice expansion, state-funded graduate medical education and prescription drug misuse.

“As DOs become more engaged in the policy-making process and weigh in on these important issues, the profession has been able to have a greater impact on the health care policy decisions that are being made at the state level,” says Nick Schilligo, the AOA’s associate vice president of state government affairs.

Below are three areas where the osteopathic medical profession has made a particularly significant impact in the past year.

Scope of Practice Partnership

Physician associations joined in 2006 to enact the Scope of Practice Partnership (SOPP), which seeks to curtail inappropriate scope-of-practice expansions by nonphysician health care professionals.

Last year, the Texas Osteopathic Medical Association (TOMA) became the first state osteopathic medical association to be elected to the Scope of Practice Partnership’s steering committee.

“This appointment demonstrates that specialty societies nationally view TOMA and the osteopathic profession as a meaningful entity that should be involved in larger issues such as scope of practice,” says David Reynolds, TOMA’s Executive Director. “We’re part of the discussions on the best strategies available to combat unnecessary scope of practice expansion.”

As a result of the appointment, the osteopathic medical profession now has greater influence within the SOPP, which led to two other state osteopathic organizations landing grants from the SOPP for campaigns to combat incongruous scope-of-practice expansion. The Oklahoma Osteopathic Association secured $25,000 to fight direct access for physical therapy in the state, while Ohio received $55,000 to challenge nurse practitioners’ expansion efforts.

State-funded GME in Oklahoma

Leaders from the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine (OSU-COM) in Tulsa reached out to the AOA for support in petitioning the state’s Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) for new residency training for osteopathically focused programs.

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“The AOA helped OSU-COM put together a proposal that highlighted the need for this but also demonstrated the osteopathic profession’s commitment to community-based rural primary care training and providing care to underserved patients,” Schilligo says. “And they received $3.8 million in new funding for these programs.”

In addition, the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority will match the TSET funding, wrote Kayse M. Shrum, DO, the president of the Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, in an email. The combined funds will support startup costs for 127 new residency slots; residents will begin filling the slots in July.

“The program was ultimately successful because we had many people invested and working to solve a problem,” Dr. Shrum wrote. “I am very fortunate to work with a group of colleagues who are dedicated and passionate about osteopathic medical education, medicine and the state of Oklahoma.”

Addressing opioid misuse

Last year, the AOA joined a multidisciplinary work group established by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to brainstorm ways health care professionals can help curtail the nation’s prescription drug epidemic.

Schilligo, who has been helping the work group develop educational modules for clinicians, has also educated osteopathic state affiliate organizations on opioid misuse and helped them understand the need to lead this effort in their states.

The New Mexico Osteopathic Medical Association (NMOMA) recently organized a summit on prescription drug abuse to encourage health care professionals, law enforcement and politicians to work together to find solutions to the crisis. Ralph McClish, NMOMA’s executive director, also recently participated in a panel discussion on the local news, appearing with the state attorney general and an addiction medicine physician. In Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder recently appointed Steve Bell, DO, to the state’s opioid misuse task force.

“Ralph and Dr. Bell have really stepped up to make the osteopathic medical profession a leader in their states on this issue,” Schilligo says.