October is Health Literacy Month—a time when health organizations, libraries, government agencies, and other groups work together to expand the mission of health literacy. Together, we can build a world with greater health equity where everyone can attain positive health outcomes. Visit healthliteracymonth.org to learn more.

The following news release was distributed today by the American Osteopathic Association. We extend heartfelt congratulations to all osteopathic medical students and graduates who successfully matched and look forward to sharing final placement rates in the coming months. CHICAGO, March 15, 2024—The American Osteopathic Association is pleased to announce that a record high number of 7,705 osteopathic medical students and past DO graduates matched into year 1 (PGY-1) residency positions through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). This number reflects a 92.3% match rate for the 8,033 DO seniors who participated, a 0.7% increase from last year. Overall, the number of osteopathic fourth-year students who matched into PGY-1 positions increased by 600 compared with the previous year. According to NRMP, the match rate for fourth-year osteopathic medical students has increased by 4.2 percentage points since 2019. Participating fourth-year osteopathic medical students matched into 25 specialties and 16 combined specialties. In total, the 2024 NRMP match included 6,395 certified programs offering 41,503 PGY-1 and PGY-2 training positions, the largest number in the NRMP’s 72-year history. Offerings included 125 more programs and 1,128 more positions than the 2023 main residency match. Following completion of the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP), final DO residency placement numbers will be available in coming months and are expected to reach or exceed the 98% rate reported in prior years. According to a whitepaper published by the NRMP last October, DO seniors had the highest placement rate of all applicant types in 2023. “Year after year, our remarkable osteopathic medical students continue to outperform previous placement rates, and we couldn’t be more ecstatic to see them match successfully into residency positions spanning the full spectrum of specialties and geographic locations,” said AOA President Ira P. Monka, DO. “As the osteopathic profession continues to grow, we are confident the caliber of medical students produced by our osteopathic medical schools will ensure a bright and successful future for our profession.” DOs in high demand Reflecting the osteopathic medical profession’s strong roots in primary care, a total of 3,048 (53.3%) DO students matched into primary care residency programs (family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine-pediatrics, and pediatrics), with the remaining 3,464 (47.6%) securing positions in non-primary care programs across a variety of specialties. The number of DO senior placements increased significantly in emergency medicine (317 more matches), psychiatry (97 more matches) and internal medicine (95 more matches), compared with the 2023 match. Additional specialties with double-digit growth for DO seniors include obstetrics and gynecology, general surgery, diagnostic radiology, anesthesiology, and physical medicine and rehabilitation. “I’ve had the distinct pleasure of seeing so many of our wonderful osteopathic medical students in action during my travels over the past year, so it’s no surprise to see that they are so highly valued by training programs seeking residents through the NRMP Match,” said AOA CEO Kathleen S. Creason, MBA. “The successful match and final placement rates for our students make it clear that GME programs are actively seeking the distinctive whole-person approach that DOs bring to the practice of medicine.” Top 15 specialties The following breakdown shows the top 15 specialties matched into by fourth-year osteopathic medical students seeking PGY-1 placements: 1.     Internal medicine (categorical) 2.     Family medicine 3.     Emergency medicine 4.     Pediatrics 5.     Psychiatry 6.     Anesthesiology 7.     Transitional year 8.     Obstetrics and Gynecology 9.     Surgery (categorical) 10. Physical medicine and rehabilitation 11. Neurology 12. Diagnostic radiology 13. Internal medicine – preliminary year 14. Orthopedic surgery 15. Pathology About the AOA The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) represents more than 186,000 osteopathic physicians (DOs) and osteopathic medical students; promotes public health; encourages scientific research; serves as the primary certifying body for DOs; and is the accrediting agency for osteopathic medical schools. To learn more about DOs and the osteopathic philosophy of medicine, visit www.osteopathic.org.

On March 12, 2024, the AOA participated in a roundtable convened by the Biden Administration to discuss the steps the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Biden-Harris Administration, and healthcare stakeholders are taking in response to the cyberattack on Change Healthcare. Meeting participants included leadership from the White House and HHS, as well as chief executives from major health plans, select physician societies, and associations representing hospitals, pharmacies, and other providers. During the meeting, AOA Chief Executive Officer Kathleen Creason emphasized the challenges osteopathic physicians across the country are experiencing as they try to maintain their practices and provide care to their patients.

The AOA asked the Biden administration to require plans to:

1.     Waive utilization management (UM) measures to prevent disruptions to patient care;

2.     Prohibit plans from retroactively denying claims based on eligibility or lack of UM approval; and

3.     Require that plans extend claims submission deadlines to ensure payment for services rendered during the disruption.

Change Healthcare provides clearinghouse services to support a broad range of electronic transactions in healthcare. As noted by an HHS letter to stakeholders, “Change Healthcare, owned by UnitedHealth Group (UHG), processes 15 billion health care transactions annually and is involved in one in every three patient records.” The disruption has significant implications across the health care ecosystem for activities including e-prescribing, provider claims submission and processing, pharmacy claims transactions, and payment. While solutions have been developed to largely restore some activities, such as e-prescribing and pharmacy claims, claims and payment transactions for physicians and other providers continue to be significantly disrupted.

Many physician practices continue to go without or with very limited revenue, and the outage will have disproportionate impacts on small and independent practices, as well as those in rural and underserved communities, who are already grappling with limited resources, thin margins, and payment challenges.

HHS has taken several steps to support physicians and other providers during the Change Healthcare disruption, including making advanced payments available to Medicare Part A and B providers via the Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption (CHOPD) accelerated payments program; issuing guidance to Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D, Medicaid, and CHIP plans urging them to grant flexibilities to providers for utilization management and claims submission; and coordinating with other federal agencies to take additional appropriate responses. However, more must be done to ensure the survival of physician practices who are entering a fourth week of limited revenue.

During the roundtable, HHS made clear that all health plans accepting federal funds, including MA, Part D, Medicaid managed care, and CHIP plans, should be providing flexibility and advanced payments to providers. The AOA will continue to advocate with the Biden Administration and health plans, and share resources with members.

Congratulations to Dr Sumeet Goel for his recent re-appointment to the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board, and for his election to serve as the board’s Vice-Chairperson.  Dr Goel will serve on the Board through July 1, 2027.

The WAOPS Fall Conference was held on November 10-11, 2023 at the Kalahari Resort & Conference Center in the Wisconsin Dells. The conference included two full days of CME content on a variety of topics with speakers from all over Wisconsin and Minnesota. Presentation subjects included Medical Informatics and Efficient Charting, Asthma, OMT for Headaches, Tick Talk: Updates and Recommendations on Lyme Disease and Other Tick Borne Illnesses, and more! In addition to a range of educational sessions, WAOPS had several exhibitors who were available to discuss their newest products and a lively social hour Friday evening.

Thank you to our CME Committee for another excellent educational event and to all of our attendees and exhibitors for their support.

Register now to attend our Spring 2024 Conference at the Oshkosh Convention Center!

From The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) values and acknowledges the education and expertise of physicians who receive doctor of osteopathic medicine degrees. Osteopathic medical training is equivalent in scientific rigor to allopathic training and prepares physicians to provide full-scale medical care to patients. In obstetrics and gynecology, roughly one-sixth of obstetrics and gynecology residency applicants have training in osteopathic medicine. These physicians represent a robust and growing cohort of our community and play a critical role in meeting obstetric and gynecologic health care needs.

ACOG strongly believes that trainees who receive doctor of osteopathic medicine degrees should not face unfair obstacles when applying to obstetrics and gynecology residency programs. ACOG encourages all obstetrics and gynecology residency programs to accept the results of the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination of the United States, also known as COMLEX-USA, and not require or pressure applicants with DO degrees to take additional licensing exams, disproportionately burdening them compared with allopathically trained applicants.

Find tools to assist residency program directors in using COMLEX-USA as part of holistic review for DO applicants.

I am Catherine Nelson, DO, immediate past president of WAOPS and lead delegate for the AOA House of Delegates (HOD) for 2023. In July, I had the privilege of leading our state delegation of 6 representatives to help be the voice for Wisconsin DO’s with AOA policy.  Thank you to Art Angove DO, Sarah James DO, Lezlie Painovich DO, Christopher Kordick DO and Jordan Paluch, OM3 for their wonderful advocacy efforts. This group spent numerous hours before HOD and during the meeting to ensure we were a unified voice representing Wisconsin.

During the meeting we had the honor of hearing from Dr. Bill Anderson one of the first African American Osteopathic Physicians. He has devoted his life to advocacy for physicians, patients and civil rights. He reminded all of us “If you come to this world and leave just as you found it, you could have stayed where you were.” We used this as our rallying cry to keep working hard! We also had the privilege of honoring Jordan Paluch, OMS3 as she was selected for the AOIA OPAC Award: James M Lally, DO Scholarship Award. Jordan was selected amongst many candidates and stood proudly before the entire HOD to receive her award. She also received a standing ovation from all in attendance for her incredible advocacy efforts.

We also spent our time advocating on behalf of Wisconsin Osteopathic Physicians. Topics included: equity in GME programs, prior authorization paperwork, physician workplace safety, physician noncompete clauses and several others. We also worked as a team to reword several resolutions that were then adopted on the floor.  Moving forward our team hopes to write several resolutions for next year. If anyone has something that they feel strongly about, please reach out to myself or any member of the WAOPS board and we will work together on writing a resolution. Wisconsin is being recognized at AOA for our hard work and we want to continue this momentum. I am already looking forward to next year!

Evers signs epinephrine, EMS bills
From Wisconsin Health News

Gov. Tony Evers signed into law bills Friday that expand the types of medications that can be administered to counteract severe allergic reactions and support a program boosting the amount of federal dollars available to support emergency medical services providers.

One of the proposals approved by Evers replaces current law references to “epinephrine auto-injector or prefilled syringe” with “epinephrine delivery system,” which is defined as a device that contains a premeasured dose of epinephrine and prevents or treats life-threatening allergic reactions. The bill also allows pharmacists to dispense epinephrine without patient-specific prescription orders, according to a statement from bill authors Sen. André Jacque, R-De Pere, and Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers. 

The legislation builds on a series of recent state laws expanding access to the law due to advocacy efforts by Angel and George Mueller, parents of Dillon Mueller, an 18-year-old who died from a reaction to a bee sting. 

“Thanks to them, Wisconsin is again leading the way forward in promoting epinephrine legislation nationwide,” Sortwell said in a statement. 

Evers signed off on legislation that EMS providers have described as the final piece of an effort to boost support for services. It builds on a 2022 state law establishing an ambulance assessment program, where providers pay an assessment that allows the state to draw down additional federal Medicaid dollars that it can distribute back to them. 

Evers also signed a bill into law that increases penalties for those who manufacture, deliver or administer a controlled substance that kills someone.

And he approved one bill and vetoed two that came from a legislative study committee that met last year to recommend reforms to the state’s occupational licensing system. 

The approved bill clarifies state law around licensure renewal. The vetoed bills boost license reporting requirements to the Legislature by the Department of Safety Professional Services.

In his veto messages, the governor noted he can’t support requiring the state agency to provide “arbitrary metrics” that don’t give meaningful information to applicants and divert resources away from processing licenses. He also objected to the Legislature not providing additional resources for the reporting. 

WAOPS Members Drs. Leslie and Lenard Markman were able to be present for the important signing and brought their Epinephrine Stickers with them!

The American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians endorses Dillion's Law!

The ACOFP distributed a letter of support to Representatives Grothman and Dingell as they "believe this law will help save lives by promoting opportunities for more people to be trained to administer life-saving epinephrine to individuals experiencing life-threatening anaphylactic reactions".

You can read the entire letter here. 

Doctor Day 2023 was a success with over 300 registered physicians, residents, and medical students!

The group began their day at the beautiful Monona Terrace for a light breakfast and presentations on First Attendee Orientation, Communications/Media Training 101, Physician Wellness, and  a Legal Update. AMA President, Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, then joined as the keynote presenter. Following his presentation was a State Agency Roundtable and a Physicians Priority Issues Briefing. The group had a brief lunch and then headed down the street to the Capitol where physicians met with their legislators to discuss Doctor Day's priority issues: APRN Legislation and Extended Medicaid Coverage for New Moms. 

The group reconvened at Madison's for some appetizers and drinks and to discuss how their visits went. Everyone was in good spirits and already looking forward to the next Wisconsin Doctor Day!