Today I completed my 12 months’ long Osteopathic Health Policy Fellowship (OHPF). It was capped off by my capstone project in which I wrote a policy brief and delivered testimony to our class on the topic of pharmacy benefit managers.
The OHPF is a year-long training program designed for Osteopathic Physicians and other individuals with an established connection to the profession to develop the skills they need to analyze, formulate, and implement health policy on the local, state, and national levels Our class was filled with talented and interesting people, led by intelligent, engaged leaders. I was lucky to be part of it.
Two of the the most important topics were foundations of health policy and policy analysis. These issues really hit home with my topic of pharmacy benefit managers. They were created to be the middlemen in this complex and expensive market, but they write there own rules and have realized outsized profit. More transparency needs to be injected into the pharmacy benefits system.
If you want to make the world a better place, you have to get involved. It is easy to sit back, and complain, but if you want things to change, you need to act. Learning about policy creation and policy analysis as well as advocacy this past year has armed me with the tools to do just that.
Stay well!
Ask Dr S. 