Legislative

MSV Enjoys Legislative Victories in 2009

As the General Assembly closed out the 2009 legislative session on February 28, MSV can proudly say that 2009 was full of legislative victories for medicine and patients.

In reviewing our 2009 legislative agenda, MSV achieved our key objectives of protecting the medical malpractice cap from any increases this year; passing legislation strengthening the "I'm Sorry" statute, which allows a physician make certain expressions of sympathy without them being admissible in court; holding the line on Medicaid reimbursements for physicians after a 3 percent cut was proposed by the Senate; and defeating a potential threat to physicians' scope of practice by convincing legislators that naturopaths should not be licensed as "naturopathic physicians."

MSV and the physician community also played a key role in securing passage of the Clean Air Act, which will ban smoking in nearly all of Virginia’s restraurants in December 2009. Passage of smoke-free air legislation is a tremendous victory for Virginia’s physicians and health care community. Upon hearing of the General Assembly vote in favor of the ban, Governor Timothy M. Kaine recognized MSV and physicians for the role they played in advocating for this important legislation. MSV, the American Academy of Pediatrics-Virginia Chapter, the Virginia Academy of Family Physicians, the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians, and the Psychiatric Society of Virginia were instrumental in the passage of this bill.

MSV appreciates the efforts of physicians, medical students and Alliance members who attended White Coats on Call, testified at committee meetings and e-mailed or called their legislators throughout the session. We can attribute our successes this year on your outreach to your delegates and senators.

Resources

2009 Legislative Wrap-up (PDF)

2009 Legislative Wrap-up - One pager (PDF)

2009 Audio/Video Archive