Activity Update

Fall ahead into a busy legislative session

Today is the first day of fall. It is hard to believe that over half of the first year of this new legislative session is already in the books. Kids have been back to school for almost a month. Instead of just learning the basics, their lives are full of debates on mandatory masking, potential FDA-approved vaccines for elementary school kids and revised athletic schedules.

It is now a good time to recap what the Society has been working on this summer and what is expected to take up much of the rest of this year.

COVID-19 Activities

Without rehashing the obvious, COVID has not gone away, much to the chagrin of lawmakers who voted to end the ability of Governor Wolf and future governors to declare prolonged emergency declarations. As stated within our last issue of News and Notes, the state legislature enacted legislation that required a constitutional amendment change to limit any governor’s authority to declare a Public Health Emergency (PHE) to 21 days- regardless of the issue. Act 21 of 2021 was signed into law on June 11, 2021. Implementation of the Act allowed for an extension of all temporary/suspended regulations and policies relaxed under COVID through September 30, 2021, unless terminated sooner by the agency that issued the suspension. Within my article, I highlighted the COVID-related rescinded waivers that will be most problematic for our members: telemedicine; requiring emergency paper prescriptions within 72 hours; flexibility for out-ofstate health care practitioners to provide healthcare during a crisis; physicians and the number of affiliated institutions in which they can practice; and Buprenorphine treatment via telemedicine expanding access to treatment of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). Although these policies will have expired by the time of publication, the Society will be working with PAMED and other medical specialty colleagues to reinstate as many of these policies in some fashion as possible to ensure that access to care is not compromised. The Society will also continue to collaborate with the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Leadership Council (PPLC) to hold bi-weekly Zoom meetings providing a forum to discuss COVID-19, share stories and support each other during this difficult time. It is an hour each week that is an “informal” support group to brainstorm on how to provide care and find alternatives to traditional practice to ensure that needs are being met during this pandemic.

Society Advocacy on the National Stage

Our affiliation with the APA has afforded our members the opportunity to not just get engaged on the state level, but on the national level. The Society’s official Area 3 representatives (Drs. Albaugh, Colon-Rivera, Neff, and Wilson), along with Area 3 Trustee Kenneth M. Certa, MD, DLFAPA, meet on a regular basis with your colleagues across the region and at the APA Board of Trustees to affect change. Dr. Nazanin Silver recently stepped down as one of our representatives. The Society thanks her for her service to the district branch.

PaPS continues to work closely with the APA to collaborate on advocacy areas of mutual interest. During this time alone, the Society: • Personalized an APA template letter commenting on the US

Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) proposed

Rulemaking Changes to the current HIPAA laws/regulations. Our comments were submitted to HHS on May 4th. • Via solicitation from Senator Patrick Toomey’s office in early summer,

APA and I reviewed the proposed IMPROVE Act. Toomey’s request was for both APA and PaPS to formally support his initiative.

We informed Toomey’s office that we would remain neutral based on psychiatrists seldom prescribing opioids and APA members asking to remain neutral on provisions related to Drug Utilization

Review (DUR). • On behalf of the Society, members attended the APA legislative conference and performed federal legislative visits in early June.

Members representing PaPS included Mary Anne Albaugh,

MD, DFAPA (Area 3 representative- Western chapter); Jad Hilal (medical student, UPMC); Evgenia Royter, DO (RFM member from Coatesville); Adam Sagot, DO (fellow from Philadelphia chapter); Hope Selarnick, MD, DFAPA (PaPS President-Elect)

Fauzia Sheikh, MD, DFAPA (former Central chapter president); and myself. Our coalition met with staffers from the Pennsylvania

Congressional Delegation (including Congresswoman Madeline

Dean [D-Montgomery County]; Congressman Dwight Evans [D-Philadelphia County]; Congressman Mike Doyle [D-Allegheny

County]; Congressman John Joyce, MD [R-13TH- Blair County];

Congressman Mike Kelly [R-Erie County]; Congressman Scott Perry [R-10th District-including Cumberland County]; and Senators Bob

Casey [D] and Pat Toomey [R]). Psychiatric top advocacy priorities discussed included co-sponsors for the proposed federal legislation on the Collaborative Care model; moving the Pursuing Equity in

Mental Health Act across the finish line; moving proposed legislation to increase GME slots; and co-sponsoring proposed legislation on telehealth.

• PaPS personalized APA Template letter to CMS Administrator

Brooks-LaSure advocating for the continuation of audio-only telemedicine coverage instituted during the public health emergency in early September. Feel free to contact us for a copy of the letter or for more information.

Society Updates Close to Home

Since my last article, our members and myself have attended too many meetings to count. Representation at quarterly meetings within the Departments of Corrections, Drug/Alcohol Programs, Health, Human Services and the Pennsylvania Commission of Crime and Delinquency continue in earnest. Rest assured, the Society is keeping abreast of all grassroots advocacy areas of interest to psychiatry and will engage our members as appropriate.