Amid debate over opioids, doctors’ voices fill the halls of Pa. Capitol
A deep-pocketed lobbying powerhouse is walking a fine line as Harrisburg grapples with the opioid crisis.
The Pennsylvania Medical Society, which bills itself as the voice of the state’s physicians, has been at the center of efforts to write voluntary guidelines physicians can use when prescribing powerful narcotics. But it is opposing two of Gov. Tom Wolf’s biggest priorities — restrictions on emergency room prescribing and demands that doctors check patients’ drug histories every time they prescribe controlled substances.
“We have for years recognized that there is a problem” with
opioids, said Scott Shapiro, a physician who is president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society.
Doctors “own our responsibility on that” he said, attributing an era of painkiller prescribing to “the way we were educated and the directions we were given, and our own biases.”
The society, though, wishes that the focus were on expanding drug treatment and is on guard for legislative overreaction.
“Legislating anything with regard to the conditions in which we prescribe and what we prescribe would be a drastic mistake,” Dr. Shapiro said.
The society does “a lot of good stuff,” said Rep. Gene DiGirolamo, R-Bensalem, whose bill demanding more checks of patient drug histories has drawn the society’s opposition. “On this issue, if they’re going to oppose that, I think they’re wrong.”
Rep. Rosemary Brown, REast Stroudsburg, has sat across the table from the society on her proposal to bar emergency room doctors from prescribing more than a week’s worth of opioids and knows its lobbyists are trying to amend her bill in the Senate.
“We’ve had disagreements and agreements,” she said, “but everything has been very straightforward.”
Under the society’s umbrella are a wealthy nonprofit organization, a political action committee and one of the most muscular lobbying arms in the state.
The society’s IRS filings indicate that at the end of 2014, it had $196,974,509 in assets, some stemming from smart investing of proceeds from the sale of a malpractice insurance arm. The society made income of $24.2 million in 2014, mostly from investments, and spent $15.7 million. A little more than half of that spending went to employee compensation, including $344,327 paid that year to Michael Fraser, who resigned from the post of CEO in July to lead a national health organization.
A 2015 Pittsburgh PostGazette analysis of eight years of lobbying spending in the state placed the society fourth, trailing only the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania, and the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. The society typically spends about $1 million a year on lobbying and spent $341,910 influencing Harrisburg during the first half of this year.
Dr. Shapiro said the society has to be a force in Harrisburg because the state is “one of the most litigious states in terms of medical issues.”
“They don’t always get their way,” said Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill. “The Medical Society was very active in their opposition to the medical marijuana legislation, which we passed in a bipartisan way in spite of them.”
The society had called for more research amid concerns about its effectiveness across many diseases.
As a result of the society's opposition, though, the medical marijuana bill was “boxed up in committee forever and [that] forced us to circumvent the committee process,” Mr. Frankel said.
This year through June, the related Pennsylvania Medical Political Action Committee made $29,476 in campaign contributions to Pennsylvania candidates and political committees. Of that, 93 percent went to Republicans. The biggest recipients were the House Republican Campaign Committee at $8,900 and House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Marshall, at $2,731.
Dr. Shapiro said the society has “zero party bias,” noting that it is supporting a Democrat for attorney general.
“They are perceived to be partisan,” said Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery.
That perception hampers the society’s efforts, he said.
“Republicans take them for granted,” he said. “Democrats feel like they’re never going to be supportive.”
“They don’t always get their way. The Medical Society was very active in their opposition to the medical marijuana legislation, which we passed in a bipartisan way in spite of them.” Rep. Dan Frankel D-Squirrel Hill