The College’s House of Delegates (HOD), led by Speaker M. Razi Rafeeq, MD, FACAAI, continues to keep the allergy advocates involved throughout the country.
This year, each Super-delegate hosted town hall meetings in their region. While many issues remain universal, some participating allergists discussed issues specific to their practices and sought guidance from their colleagues.
Epinephrine Advocacy: The College has been asked by Senator Tammy Duckworth’s (D-IL) office to help identify Republican supporters for Senator Duckworth’s draft legislation. This legislation would require the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to review the mandatory contents of airline Emergency Medical Kits (EMK) at least every three years.
Sen. Duckworth has championed recent efforts to require EMKs to also include epinephrine auto-injectors. Industry opposition to those efforts successfully prevented them from receiving consideration in Congress. Sen. Duckworth is now trying a new, less prescriptive approach that will create a process for regular reviews of the EMKs. Our hope is that this will open the door for the FAA to require epinephrine auto-injectors in the EMKs in the future.
Our Washington consultants, Matt Reiter and Branden Cordeiro, advised us to reach out to members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and request a virtual meeting regarding Sen. Duckworth’s draft legislation. HOD Delegates who reside in the same state as a member of the Senate Committee were asked to work on this project.
Several of our HOD delegates were asked to contact members of the Commerce Committee and request support for this effort. To date, Drs. Rafeeq and Rathkopf have been successful in arranging meetings. We look forward to promising results.
Annual Town Hall Meeting: Friday, Nov. 11, 4:30 – 5:45 pm ET – Kentucky International Convention Center, Room M100-M103: All College members are invited to attend. Enjoy wine and cheese at the meeting, which will begin with a brief Business Meeting where Dr. Wes Sublett will be nominated for another term in the office of Recording Secretary. Following this, we’ll move right into our program titled Value-based Care – The Cost-effectiveness of Allergy Treatment that will include the following presentations:
- An Alternative Payment Model for Patient-Centered Asthma Care – James Tracy, DO
- Cost Effectiveness of Venom and Allergen Immunotherapy – Gary Gross, MD
- How Legislation Affects You and Your Allergy Practice – Matt Reiter, Capitol Associates.
The presentations will be followed by a Q&A period and conclude by 5:45 pm.
2023 State Delegates: Our next call for state delegates will begin in early January 2023. Applications will be accepted Jan. 15 – Feb. 28. We are looking for delegates from Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. If you are (or know of) an advocating allergist in any of these states, please complete and submit an application by Feb. 28. Watch the College Insider newsletter for more details in early January 2023.
We look forward to seeing you in Louisville!
