Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve replaced our annual Family Medicine Advocacy Summit with our first-ever remote “Week of Action,” beginning Monday, June 1, to advocate for family medicine in Congress. How family medicine responds to the COVID-19 pandemic will shape primary care and our health care system for years to come, and it’s crucial
The CAFP recently issued a formal letter to governor Polis, where we in part urged him to issue a statewide stay-at-home order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (we also urged him to take additional actions to safeguard the healthcare workforce through better communications and a greater effort to secure PPE). We are asking for
The Colorado legislature recently introduced House Bill 20-1349, a bill which will create a public insurance option for the state. As the legislature deliberates on this bill, CAFP supports its tenets, as it enhances primary care and expands healthcare access for Colorado families. Too many Coloradans are struggling to afford the healthcare they need. Families across the state cannot afford the rising
The Colorado Academy of Family Physicians has joined fourteen other organizations to support HB20-1319, which is a bipartisan measure to end the sale of flavored tobacco products in Colorado. The ban will apply to the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, cigars, menthol cigarettes, other flavored tobacco products, and products intended to be added to cigarettes, tobacco
As an early adopter of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model of care delivery, Colorado has been at the forefront of practice innovation. While primary care makes up more than half of all medical appointments, in the U.S. we have invested less than 10% of our health care dollars in primary care. This results in
By Riley Stanton, CAFP Communications and Marketing Intern The manufacturers of opioid painkillers aggressively marketed their products in the 1990s, exaggerating the benefits and downplaying the risks, while simultaneously lobbying lawmakers to make it easier for patients to receive the drugs. Even as the rise in addictions, overdoses, and opioid-related deaths became apparent, the top
This summer, we took a road trip to visit members in rural northwest and southwest Colorado. We wanted to know more about concerns family physicians in more remote areas may have. Not surprisingly, they share some of the same concerns held by our urban and suburban members; administrative burden and a lack of payment parity
By Riley Stanton, CAFP Communications and Marketing Intern It was a productive 2019 legislative session, with 462 new bills passed into law. Three of these bills passed into law were CAFP-led. This legislation will invest more money into primary care, offer communication and resolution programs for patients and physicians when an unexpected health outcome occurs,
By Sarah Martinez, CAFP Policy and Advocacy Intern Last April, Colorado passed HB18-1284 Disclosure of Prescription Costs at Pharmacies, enacting the “Patient Drug Costs Savings Act”. Before this legislation, insurance carriers and their Prescription Benefit Managers in Colorado could maintain contracts with pharmacies that included “Gag Clauses”. These were legal agreements that threatened to punish
By Madison Dillon, CAFP Policy Intern Thank you to all the physicians who made a difference in Colorado during 2018! Your dedication and volunteerism made a meaningful impact this past year. Let’s look back at some of your accomplishments. Fifty-three CAFP physicians participated in our Doctor of the Day program, bringing healthcare to over 30