FMA PAC

Candidate Profile
Information & Questionnaire

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Personal Information
Name:
District #:
Home Address:
City :
ZIP :
Phone Number :
Cell Number :
E-mail address :
Occupation :
Who is your familys physician?

Do you have any family members who are physicians? If so, where do
they practice, what is their name, specialty and relationship to you?

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Campaign Information
Are there any physicians who are currently supporting your campaign?
Who are they?

What are your reasons for running?

If elected, what are your top 3 priorities?

1.

2.

3.

Have you ever held public office before (either elected or appointed)?
Please describe.

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Campaign Information continued
What groups or organizations do you expect to support you in your race?
Why?

What groups do you expect to oppose your candidacy? Why?

How much money have you raised to date?

$
How much money do you think will be required to win?
$
Do you have a written campaign plan?

Do you have a campaign manager or consultant? If so please provide

their contact information:

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State Legislative & Executive Branch

Candidate Questionnaire
1). The Affordable Care Act included a provision which increased Medicaid
reimbursement rates for primary care physicians to that of Medicare. However,
the Federal government only funded that program for 2 years, and the rate
increase has expired. To return Medicaid reimbursement to Medicare levels
for primary care physicians, and to increase payment rates to Medicare levels
for all physicians, the Florida Legislature will need to appropriate additional
funds. Studies have shown that increasing Medicaid physician reimbursement
rates improves access and keeps patients out of the emergency room where
it is more expensive to provide care. To improve access, would you be willing
to advocate during the budget appropriations process to ensure that Medicaid
physician reimbursement rates are equal to Medicare levels?

Yes

No

Comment (if any):

2). Insurance companies will often retroactively deny a physicians claim for
payment even when the physician jumped through the hoops of contacting the
insurance company to check whether the patient was insured by the company,
and received authorization from the company to provide medical services to
the patient. Insurance companies will also seek to recoup payments made
to physician under the same circumstances. Physicians who have had their
claims retroactively denied are then forced to track down and seek payment
from patients months after the services were provided. This practice of
retroactively denying legitimate claims is extremely unfair to the physician,
who had no choice but to rely on the authorization from the insurance
company prior to providing services. Would you support legislation that would
require insurance companies to provide real time eligibility data for their
subscribers, and that would prohibit an insurance company from retroactively
denying a claim the company authorized?

Yes

No

Comment (if any):

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3). The FMA believes that health insurance companies should let physicians
know what they will be paid for treating an insured patient. Too often, health
insurance companies play hide the ball and refuse to provide physicians
with an accurate listing of the amount they will pay for care the physician
provides. Would you support legislation which would require all health
insurance companies to provide participating physicians access, on the
their websites, to a list of what the physician will be paid for the care he/she
provides?

Yes

No

Comment (if any):

4). Florida has the highest medical liability insurance rates in the entire
country. Many physicians are unable to afford medical liability insurance due
to the high cost and have chosen to self-insure (as current law permits). Will
you oppose efforts to require all physicians to carry medical liability insurance
and take away their ability to self-insure?

Yes

No

Comment (if any):

5). Each year, physician extenders (nurses, podiatrists, psychologists,

pharmacists, etc.) seek legislation that would expand their scope of practice
and allow them practice independent of a physician, prescribe drugs, perform
surgery and/or perform other procedures that would allow them to practice
medicine despite not having the same educational background and training
of a medical doctor. The FMA believes that allowing non- physician health
care providers to work in areas beyond their level of education and training
can seriously endanger patients and is bad public policy. The FMAs primary
concern is and must always be ensuring quality care and protecting the
patient. Would you oppose all legislative efforts by non-physicians to expand
their scope of practice?

Yes

No

Comment (if any):

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6). Florida is facing a serious physician shortage. One way to help resolve this
crisis is for the state to fund additional graduate medical education/residency
training slots. Due to a lack of residency training programs in our state,
Florida is currently exporting physicians who have received their medical
degrees from one of Floridas medical schools. Would you support efforts to
increase state funding for graduate medical education programs in an effort to
attract more physicians to our state?

Yes

No

Comment (if any):

7) Telemedicine is an emerging healthcare delivery method which can be

described as the exchanging of medical information between physicians and
patients via electronic communications. The FMA supports telemedicine
legislation that will modernize medical practice by establishing uniform
standards for physicians and maintain patient safety. To achieve this,
four components must be established: a clear definition, education,
reimbursement and most importantly accountability. To achieve accountability,
the FMA believes that physicians practicing telemedicine on Floridians must
be licensed in Florida and therefore be regulated by the Board of Medicine.
Would you support legislation that required physicians entering Florida
via electronic communications to obtain a Florida medical license before
practicing telemedicine on Florida patients?

Yes

No

Comment (if any):