About The agenda
The 2023-2024 Health Policy Agenda reflects Council’s priority focus on clinical practice, education, and research policy issues by determining the issues the SGIM Health Policy Committee, its staff, and consultants will work on for the following year.
SGIM aims to collaborate with organizations with similar interests, whether physician groups or patient-focused. Special attention will be paid to communicating SGIM’s positions to its membership and policymakers.
Our mission
At SGIM, our advocacy efforts are dedicated to advancing policies that:
- Support high-quality primary care services that enhance patient outcomes and health equity.
- Bolster education and training in general internal medicine through adequate funding for health professions training.
- Support physicians and their groundbreaking health services and primary care research.
Our Commitment
We stand united in our mission, ensuring that our advocacy aligns with the collective values of our members.
Recognizing the importance of judicious resource allocation, our advocacy zeroes in on:
- Matters pivotal to the future of General Internal Medicine.
- Areas where SGIM can provide a distinct and valuable viewpoint.
Annual Advocacy Agenda
SGIM operates with a clear and purposeful annual advocacy agenda, ensuring our efforts are directed, impactful, and aligned with our mission.
Every Member an advocate: Championing Comprehensive Primary Care
Advocate Nationally
Join the SGIM Health Policy Committee and speak out for practices and policies that further the mission of primary care and general internal medicine.
Advocate Locally
Use your expertise to shape public policy on the local level. Learn about the Congressional process and how to become an effective advocate
Educate Congress
Visit our advocacy fact sheet to learn how to educate Congress on the importance of primary care.
Understand SGIM Endorsements and Federal Legislation Comments
Review our work as a Society and in partnership as we advocate for new legislation and regulatory policies.
ANTI-RACISM ADVOCACY
The Health Policy Committee (HPC) is committed to advancing anti-racist policies and will evaluate policies that fall within its scope through this lens. Additionally, the HPC will monitor opportunities to advocate, engage, and comment on policies outside the scope of our regular work.
Clinical practice
SGIM's advocacy efforts aim to support high-quality primary and cognitive care services that enhance patient outcomes and health equity.
- Advocate to ensure existing and any new payment and delivery systems, including telehealth, support delivering high-quality care for all patients. Successful models must address social determinants of health, support safety net systems and physicians caring for disproportionately medically complex and socially vulnerable populations, appropriately pay for primary care services, and not create additional administrative burdens for physicians.
- Advocate to ensure that evaluation and management services reflect the full range of care provided during primary care and cognitive office visits, particularly those delivered remotely.
EDUCATION
SGIM members lead the education of medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty at academic centers, teaching hospitals, and in the community. They are leaders in developing and evaluating innovations in medical education to prepare tomorrow's clinicians to deliver the highest quality, evidence-based, culturally appropriate, and cost-effective clinical care.
- Advocate for investment in graduate medical education (GME), including expanding the number of GME slots available for primary care and other specialties with well-documented workforce shortages.
- Advocate for establishing a payment structure that adequately supports primary care.
RESEARCH
SGIM members are national and international leaders in a wide range of research, including the many subfields that fall within the broad category of health services and primary care research.
- Advocate for the strongest supportive policy environment for the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and more funding opportunities and policies across the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that promote health equity and reduce disparities, consistent with SGIM’s priority emphasis on eliminating disparities and promoting equity and inclusion.
- Support the highest possible overall funding level for the NIH to ensure that any new funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) supplements does not supplant existing NIH funding.
- Advocate for the highest overall possible funding level for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
- Advocate for retaining and enhancing the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program at the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS).
- Advocate for new funding to assess the impact of emerging value-based payment and primary care research programs and their impact on access and equity to vulnerable populations and physicians. A minimum of 50% of the research funding should be directed to investigator-initiated research.
