TAFP members represent Texas at conferences
in Kansas City, Washington, D.C.

posted 05.17.11

Delegates representing the family physicians of Texas attended three major AAFP conferences last week—the National Conference of Special Constituencies and Annual Leadership Forum in Kansas City, Mo., and the 2011 Family Medicine Congressional Conference in Washington, D.C.

NCSC and ALF drew more than 350 family physicians, medical students, and state chapter representatives from around the country. While ALF focused on leadership training through focused breakout sessions on the media, the patient-centered medical home, workforce initiatives, and health system reform, NCSC functioned much like a compressed legislative session.

NCSC participants developed resolutions, met in constituency caucuses and held elections for the following year’s leaders, honed resolutions in reference committee meetings and hearings, and final debate and vote on resolutions.

One major issue that arose was the AMA/Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee. Delegates sent a strong message urging AAFP to withdraw its representative from the RUC, which some believe has unfairly undervalued primary care services. The resolution also directs AAFP to create a task force to identify alternative means of valuing primary care services. The resolution will now go to the AAFP Board.

To view more news about NCSC and ALF, go to the “Inside the Academy” section of AAFP News Now.

Nearly 200 family physicians, medical students, and state chapter officials from around the country attended FMCC to receive advocacy training and meet with their congressional lawmakers. Much of the discussion centered on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and how family physicians play a central role in reforms that focus on patient-centeredness. This included payment and service delivery reform models like Accountable Care Organizations, and the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation that will test and develop these models.

Speakers included AAFP President Roland Goertz, M.D., M.B.A., of Waco; Jonathan Blum, deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and director of the Center for Medicare; and Zeke Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., special advisor for health policy in the Office of Management and Budget.

For more coverage of the conference, go to AAFP News Now.

Notably for the three conferences, the social media platform Twitter connected conference attendees and family medicine stakeholders around the country. Each conference had its own hashtag, or a designated identifier attached to a tweet to make it searchable, that easily consolidated conversations and allowed Twitter users to keep up with all of the happenings. Search the hashtags to see examples of the message strings: #aafpncsc, #aafpalf, and #aafpfmcc.

Thanks to the TAFP members who attended NCSC and ALF: Diana Ballesteros, M.D., of San Antonio; Justin Bartos, M.D., of North Richland Hills; Lindsay Botsford, M.D., of Houston; Douglas Curran, M.D., of Athens; Bruce Echols, M.D., of Dallas; Kelly Gabler, M.D., of Baytown; Roland Goertz, M.D., of Waco; Katharina Hathaway, M.D., of Austin; Jamal Islam, M.D., of Odessa; Kaparaboyna Ashok Kumar, M.D., F.R.C.S., of San Antonio; Loren Lasater, M.D., of Roanoke; Carey Lindemann, M.D., of Nacogdoches; Leah Raye Mabry, M.D., of San Antonio; Mary Nguyen Poole, M.D., of Castroville; Dale Ragle, M.D., of Dallas; Puja Sehgal, M.D., of Sugar Land; Dan Sepdham, M.D., of Dallas; Amer Shakil, M.D., of Dallas; Maureen Swenson, M.D., of Austin; Lloyd Van Winkle, M.D., of Castroville; and Khalida Yasmin, M.D., of Carrollton.

And thanks to the TAFP members who participated in FMCC: Joane Baumer, M.D., of Fort Worth; Douglas Curran, M.D., of Athens; Tricia Elliott, M.D., of Galveston; Lesca Hadley, M.D., of Cleburne; Katharina Hathaway, M.D., of Austin; Erica Swegler, M.D., of Keller; and Andrew Weary, M.D., of Austin.