The 2025 Maryland Legislative Session ended recently, and we have much to celebrate in our legislative wins.

In a difficult budget year, we were able to successfully advocate for Medicaid funding at 99% of Medicare rates. This is still one of the highest rates in the country. We were also able to hold steady $3 million for the physician Loan Assistance Repayment Program. MDAFP also successfully fought against a bill allowing Naturopathic doctors the ability to prescribe prescription medications, including controlled substances. The legislature, with our support, provided the Maryland Insurance Administration with greater enforcement authority and added additional transparency requirements to prior authorization denials. We successfully lobbied against a bill to raise non-economic damages for personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. Though this bill did not include medical malpractice, if this bill passed, it would be likely that raising the cap on medical practice non-economic damages would be next.

I have seen the importance of our advocacy work in Annapolis. Meeting with legislators and having a lobbying team on the ground has helped us give a strong voice in Annapolis. We are very fortunate to have the services of Steve Wise and his team at Schwartz, Metz, and Wise, P.A. They understand the importance of family physicians and work with legislators daily on our behalf. Equally important, if not more so, is the involvement of our members in the legislative process.

This legislative session was also the inaugural MDAFP sponsored Medical Student Advocacy Leadership Rotation. Lola Tijani, a 4th year medical student at George Washington University, met with our lobbying team, sat in on legislative committee meetings, attended MDAFP Advocacy Day, and met with individual legislators advocating for MDAFP priorities. A special thanks goes to our GAC (Governmental Advocacy Committee) vice-chair, Dr. Stephen Kane for creating and supervising this elective rotation. We plan to continue this advocacy leadership rotation annually.

MDAFP and our GAC will continue to work outside the legislative session to monitor the implementation of newly passed bills as well as follow any proposed legislation for 2026. If you would like to be active in our advocacy efforts, think about joining the GAC or coming to our next Advocacy Day on February 12th, 2026. I look forward to seeing you then!