The Show-Me-State Update is your source for the latest news and information impacting the medical community. Time-sensitive information and requests related to healthcare, advocacy issues, and professional development opportunities from MAFP are included.

November 2024 – MAFP News & Events

Last Chance! Register for MAFP 32nd Annual Fall Conference

Join us November 7-9, 2024, for our 32nd Annual Fall Conference at the InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza!

Dive into the latest in healthcare developments and earn up to 16 CME credits. This conference provides excellent networking opportunities with fellow professionals and industry leaders. Don’t miss our Friday evening awards banquet and dinner featuring a “Roaring 20s” theme—come dressed to impress in your best 1920s attire!

Click here to register!

On November 7, an optional procedures workshop, OMT for All Physicians, will be hosted at Kansas City University. For complete details on the conference schedule, lodging, and registration, visit www.mo-afp.org/cme-events/annual-fall-conference/.

Start Bidding! FHFM Silent Auction Silent Auction Fundraiser

The Family Health Foundation of Missouri (FHFM) is holding a silent auction with the goal of raising $7,000. These funds will support the FHFM scholarship program, tobacco/nicotine cessation program for 4th and 5th graders, and leadership development of residents and medical students.

The auction is live online now through November 8th at 7:45 p.m. Bidding is open to everyone, so make sure you share with friends and family. We have lots of great items that members and many others generously donated, so check them out!

Items will be displayed on-site at MAFP’s Annual Fall Conference. All bids must be made online at www.32auctions.com/FHFM24. If possible, please pick up items prior to leaving the conference. If shipping is needed for any items, please speak to Kathy or Bill to make arrangements or email office@mo-afp.org

It’s Time to Renew Your Membership; Installment Plan Available

You turn to the Academy for timely, tailored resources you know you can trust. And we’ll always be here for you—with invaluable information, ways to connect with your peers, and tireless advocacy to increase administrative simplicity and ensure access to primary care.

It’s time to renew your membership for 2025. Your membership provides a variety of exclusive products, services, and discounts totaling nearly $4,500 in member savings from the American Academy of Family Physicians, including a wide variety of family medicine-specific resources, solutions, tips and advice; the most trusted CME-eligible family medicine education; the addition of your voice in the AAFP’s advocacy and legislative efforts; leadership development opportunities; career management tools; and a community of peers you can lean on.

Plus, your benefits from the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians!

There are several ways for you to pay your membership dues. You can pay in full today, sign up for installments,* or opt-in to automatically renew your membership each year.

Thank you for your continued membership. If you have any questions, please send us an email or give us a call at 800.274.2237.

*The installment plan includes a nonrefundable annual convenience fee of $15.

Seeking Physician Delegates to National Leadership Conference

The Missouri Academy of Family Physicians is seeking physicians to serve as delegates to the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) National Conference of Constituency Leaders (NCCL).  NCCL will be held April 23-26, 2025, in Kansas City, MO.

The MAFP is looking for physician members who can represent the following five recognized special constituencies:

• International Medical Graduate (IMG) (an active member of the AAFP who graduated from medical school outside the United States, Canada, or Puerto Rico)
• LGBTQ+ Physician or Ally (an active AAFP member who self-identifies as LGBTQ+ or who is supportive of LGBTQ+ issues)
• Minority (an active AAFP member who is African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, American Indian, Alaska Native, ethnic Latino, or Other)
• New (an active AAFP member who has been in practice less than seven years)
• Women (an active AAFP member who self-identifies as a woman).

During NCCL you will meet family physicians from across the United States, discuss and develop resolutions that shape AAFP policies, and have the chance to be elected for various leadership positions for the next NCCL or as a delegate to the annual AAFP Congress of Delegates.  MAFP will reimburse travel expenses based on the MAFP budget and travel reimbursement policy.

If you are interested in serving as an NCCL delegate, please email your request and CV to bplank@mo-afp.org.

AAFP Shares Year-end Advocacy Priorities with Congress

The AAFP has long been concerned about systemic underinvestment in primary care, which has fueled the nation’s ongoing shortage of family physicians who provide comprehensive primary care services for patients across the lifespan, including chronic disease management, treatment of acute illnesses, and preventive care.

Primary care is the only health care component for which an increased supply is associated with better population health and more equitable outcomes, and we need every tool available to bolster strong future generations of family physicians. As we approach 2025, the AAFP is advocating for policy priorities that reform Medicare payment, grow the primary care workforce, and alleviate clinician burden.

AAFP is accomplishing this by sending a letter to congressional leadership urging action on implementing necessary reforms to Medicare physician payment, including providing an inflationary update to offset the proposed cuts for 2025, providing a multi-year reauthorization of, and increased funding for, the Teaching Health Centers Graduate Medical Education Program, as well as for Community Health Centers and the National Health Service Corps; reforming prior authorization in Medicare Advantage; and enacting a minor technical fix to ensure that trained family physicians can continue to provide necessary care, including SUD treatment.

Candid Conversation: Another Legislative Session is Upon Us

Brian Bernskoetter, Governmental Consultant

I’m sure some of you have patients that you have to speak to in very direct terms in order for them to get a message they may not want to hear. It is probably not great for the doctor or patient in those moments, but the instructions come from a good place that, if followed, will restore health and validate the advice.

With that pretense, “Doc, let’s talk about the health of your legislative agenda, shall we?” It’s not great, if I’m going to be really honest, but there is hope. When was the last time you called or emailed your legislator about an issue of importance to family medicine? This is like the questions you ask your patients: when was the [insert your question here.]

If we are going to get really serious about the health of your legislative agenda, we need to get you on a steady diet of advocacy. To really kickstart the mending process, there is no better way than by attending next year’s MAFP Advocacy Day on February 24-25 in Jefferson City. If you haven’t attended before, I understand it can seem like a big hassle for nothing (like having to eat a salad every now and again), but I promise you it’s for your own good.

This meeting is really the foundation for legislative advocacy, where we talk about the overall landscape of healthcare policy in Missouri, key issues for family medicine that will be discussed during the legislative session, and, most importantly, how you can help by spreading the message to your legislators.

The MAFP Advocacy Day is a great opportunity to join fellow family medicine advocates to spread our message to legislators. There are 197 legislators from literally all walks of life making decisions about your practice from January through May. Many do not have the experience with healthcare to draw upon to make these decisions, and it is usually based on their last experience or their worst experience with their physician or healthcare provider. We will empower you with all the tools and information you need to educate legislators and help them craft policies that support our members.

Now, if you’re anything like some of your difficult patients, I’m sure you’re hoping that at this point I’m going to tell you this is all you have to do to restore the health of your legislative agenda, but alas that’s not all. If we want to get really serious, we are going to start hosting clinic tours for legislators, attending candidate events, and maybe even lunch with a legislator to present them a campaign contribution. This involves you sharing your perspective, insight, and recommendations for improve healthcare in Missouri.

The results of all this effort won’t always be easy to see, kind of like our toes, but it will be worth it. Family medicine advocates are fighting for policies that will streamline prior authorization reform to push back against insurers, and against continued scope of practice creep by nurses and other mid-level providers. We can grow the size of GME state funding to create more doctors and relieve the burden physicians face from being overworked. These are just a few of the benefits of a healthy legislative agenda.

Feeble attempts of humor and the painful puns aside, MAFP has had significant successes in the last few sessions either by reining in the growth of assistant physicians to creating a fund to expand residencies for family medicine. The more you participate the better the outcome for family medicine and the health of your legislative agenda.

MAFP Seeks Authors for Magazine

The Missouri Academy of Family Physicians (MAFP) is accepting articles for its 2025 issues of the Missouri Family Physician, a quarterly magazine with a print and digital distribution of more than 2,200 family physicians, family medicine residents, and medical student members in Missouri.  Please review the Article Submission Form for details on the accepted article types, eligibility criteria, and contribution guidelines. Space is limited, and articles will be accepted at the editorial team’s discretion on a first-come-first-served basis.  Please contact Bill Plank (bplank@mo-afp.org) with questions or for additional information.