 "Issues in Health Care" fliers fit in the pocket of this colorful easel, being sent by the AAFP to many active members. The fliers ask patients to contact Congress about health care legislation. |
BY J. MICHAEL BRODIE
Patients are gaining a strong voice in the U.S. Capitol, and the Academy is helping to make that happen.
When critical legislative debate occurs, family physicians will receive e-mails asking them to go to an Academy Web page (http://www.aafp.org/ptvoices.xml) to download helpful information relating to matters before Congress.
The Web site will contain a "Dear Doctor" letter that explains legislative topics and talking points to use in conversations with patients if they bring up the issues during visits with their family physicians.
For the patients, the Web site will have a flier titled "Issues in Health Care." The flier, revised two or three times a year to address new topics, will explain issues in plain English (or in Spanish upon request). Family physicians can download the flier from the Web site and copy it for patients to read in office reception rooms.
The initiative will help patients promote better health care and family medicine by giving them the tools to contact their congressional representatives on issues that affect them.
"Our patients want a voice in their health care," said AAFP President James Martin, M.D., of San Antonio. "Our patients want to speak up for better health care, and we have an opportunity to help them."
The AAFP is sending an easel to AAFP active members in solo, joint and multispecialty practices. The easels will hold the "Issues in Health Care" fliers that aim to get patients' attention and action.
If you do not soon receive an easel and would like to be part of the advocacy initiative, or if you would like additional easels for your office, call (800) 944-0000 and request item #305. The first 500 callers will receive the colorful 11" x 15" cardboard easels for free. Subsequent callers will be charged $10. A family physician can just print off the flier from the Internet, place the copies in the easel pocket, and set or hang the easel in the waiting room.
Patients will be asked to contact their members of Congress via e-mail, using the "Patients Speak Out" page on the AAFP Web site. While e-mails are the quickest way to reach Congress, the site also will have a third piece to assist FPs and patients -- a sample letter for patients who prefer to send faxes to their elected officials. The Academy does not recommend using regular mail because security procedures have slowed down the mail in Washington.
The current issue addressed on the Web site is the Medicare physician fee schedule. Eventually, other legislative materials will be available.
Martin said the Academy is providing a focus on how federal health issues impact both patients and family physicians. The new AAFP materials will give FPs what they need to discuss the issues with their patients so the patients can make their voices heard.
"As family physicians, we know that family medicine is the key to better health care in the United States," he said. "We also know that the issues we support bear a direct link to improved care for our patients, but our patients can also understand our frustration with governmental policies that propose unnecessary or inappropriate red tape and how that interferes with their care."
Martin said the initiative will help patients amplify the voice of family medicine before Congress.
"We can influence legislators to make health care laws and rules that will lead to better health care for our patients and will allow us to focus not so much on paperwork but, refreshingly, on providing better care to our patients," he said. "We want our patients' message to be effective and relevant."
To reach writer J. Michael Brodie, e-mail mbrodie@aafp.org.
FP Report is published by the AAFP
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Copyright © 2003 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.