Legislative

American Academy of Pediatrics
Georgia Chapter Report

District X Meeting April 11, 2024
Angela Highbaugh-Battle, MD, FAAP; President
Nicola Chin, MD, FAAP; Vice President

1. 2024 Legislative Session: The Georgia legislature adjourned its ’24 session on March 28. Positive highlights included: a bill to ban puberty blockers in GAC failed on the last day. (Georgia had banned the use of hormone replacement Tx in GAC last year, but not puberty blockers.) Re Medicaid rates, $12M was added to increase the 99213 and 99214 to 90% of ’24 Medicare; and a Study Committee on safe storage of firearms was created, and a pediatrician is included in that panel. One goal for next year: outreach to the 5 children’s hospitals to see if they will assist in raising Medicaid rates for subspecialists.

2. Update of Chapter Strategic Plan: At our winter board meeting in February, we discussed our “old” Strategic Plan and language to update it for the June board meeting. This month we’ll send out a Chapter survey to all members to gather additional input for the plan and ways we can better serve the professional needs of our members.

3. Donor Milk Bank: In February we told you about our efforts to get a Donor Milk Bank in Georgia–the only state in the Southeast without one. Through our efforts we got the organization $97,000 allocated in the FY24 budget to help their organization build their capacity and start large-scale fund raising efforts.

4. New officers: The Nominating Committee will soon stand-up to select candidates for our vice president, secretary and one director position for the FY 2025 year. Elections will take place at our annual meeting, held at Pediatrics By the Sea, on June 16.

5. Tele-consultation line expanding: We have expanded the area in which our mental health tele-consultation line serves. Now the line, which utilizes child psychiatrists from Augusta University/MCG is available to the entire southern half of the state–from Columbus to Macon to Augusta and south.

6. ALF Resolution: We have submitted a resolution to the Forum urging the Academy to honor the date of the “Rosenfeld dinner” which occurred on July 19, 1929, in Portland, Oregon, by designating that date as a special day at the AAP. At that dinner, a group of pediatricians attending an AMA meeting met in Dr. Rosenfeld’s home. At that gathering came the idea that directly led to the formation of the AAP. We invite our District friends/Chapters to join as co-sponsors. The deadline to do so is June 1.