Aug. 9, 2024

'Why Primary Care Physicians Are Becoming Harder to Find in Washington'

This week, the Seattle Times published its latest in a series of stories on access to health care services in Washington. The article, made with input from the WSMA, covers some of the challenges facing our primary care physician workforce and the resulting impacts on patient access to care, and features interviews with WSMA leaders and members-including one who chose to retire early partly due to the confluence of pressures. The story also refers to WSMA's legislative proposal to raise Medicaid physician and practitioner reimbursements, which continues to be our No. 1 legislative priority as we look to the 2025 legislative session. Read the story, published in the Times on Wednesday, Aug. 7.

If you missed it, in the most recent issue of our newest member newsletter, the Advocacy Report, WSMA's government affairs and policy team detailed how you can help advocate for higher Medicaid reimbursement this summer bymeeting with your legislators in their districts or by sending messages to your legislators. WSMA's Medicaid campaign website has messaging and data for your meetings and messages. Thank you for taking action this summer on this top WSMA priority.

For an update on our Medicaid campaign as we look toward the 2025 session and to learn about how you can get more involved, the WSMA is holding two lunch-hour webinars, one on Thursday, Sept. 19 and one on Thursday, Dec. 12. No registration needed-Zoom information at the links. Be sure to add one of these meetings to your calendar (and don't forget to include the Zoom link for joining the webinar at the appropriate time).