The Game is On

Michael Cronin, ND
AANP President

We are in for big changes in the US healthcare system with the re-election of President Obama and the successful review by the supreme court of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

From the original ED to the excited new CEO
in AANP's new office - Let's go! 

The AANP and Jud Richland, our CEO, are ready to engage. The AANP office has moved into a more effective workspace three blocks from the White House. Our State and Federal Affairs, Public Education and Media Outreach, and Scientific Affairs Committees have been very productive in giving advice to the 2013 workplan to optimize our efforts in achieving our common goals. The Board of Directors has now approved the AANP 2013 strategic plan.

The 2013 strategic plan has three main focuses:

1. Public Education and Media Outreach
2. State Licensure
3. ND inclusion in the healthcare system using the language of the ACA

Public Education and Media Outreach
Physicians who listen will continue to find their voices in the New Year. AANP is focused on using media to drive new patients to our members. AANP plans to bring on a media specialist who will work with naturopathic experts to increase the amount of positive media attention naturopathic physicians receive. The raised awareness of naturopathic medicine will ultimately drive traffic to our Find an ND. We will continue to improve our online patient educational tools, for example the downloadable article through Natural Health Insights. Have you visited www.naturopathic.org from your mobile phone recently? The mobile landing page directs patients straight to the find-a-doctor search tool.

State Licensure
AANP will bring a renewed focus, increased energy, and more resources to this arena in 2013. The leadership of the State and Federal Affairs Committee is dedicated to better coordination and support for states. The State Alliance is where this work occurs. I encourage you to watch the video on our release of the state legislative toolbox, and invite you to participate in the monthly webinars. The toolbox provides a variety of resources to support the states. One example tool is safety and effectiveness data on the naturopathic profession in licensed states. The webinars will help attendees how to best utilize this data in state licensure efforts. Other examples include AANP and the colleges teaming up to provide expert testimony to legislators and ideas on how to engage the voice of your patients and the support of our conventional colleagues to gain licensure in more states.

Affordable Care Act
This law affects every facet of healthcare and the 6 sections that include “licensed CAM providers” open many possibilities for inclusion of ND’s in a wide variety of programs. These opportunities will require us to fight for inclusion in every state and require us to establish a precedent early in the game. The inclusion of NDs is vital to continuing our momentum. AANP is honored to have engaged the services of Deborah Senn as our federal lobbyist. She is engaged on this issue nationwide and has the commitment, connections, and experience to optimize our efforts. We are focused on enabling NDs to participate in the best of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act health plans, provide the preventive medicine services outlined by the ACA with no out-of-pocket cost for the patient, and have access to new employment opportunities.

I would like to ask all AANP members to join and get active in your state associations. If your AANP or state association membership has expired, please renew it and get involved so that we all have the resources we need to be successful.