March 24, 2025
On March 19, the NCAFP brought over 45 members and staff to the North Carolina General Assembly to meet with their lawmakers. During their meetings, NCAFP members stressed the need for increased investment in primary care, called for prior authorization reforms, and requested a higher cap for the forgivable education loans for service (FELS) program to help bring medical students into primary care. “White Coat Wednesday gives our members the chance to bring their insights directly to our legislators,” NCAFP Executive Vice President and CEO Greg Griggs said. “It’s invaluable for building relationships and sharing how family physicians improve outcomes and lower costs.”
This group is the largest number of NCAFP members to ever attend a White Coat Wednesday event. 2025 attendance topped the 2024 attendance, which had been the previous record. Attendees met with their senators and representatives across more than 35 scheduled meetings, and many more had the chance to drop by their lawmakers’ offices. “You’re the experts today,” NCAFP President Dr. Mark McNeill told attendees. “You can share your story as physicians and medical students today.”
Many White Coat Wednesday attendees had attended in previous years, while many others came for the first time. But everyone had the chance to strengthen relationships with their representatives and senators. The Raleigh Group Vice President of Government Affairs and NCAFP lobbyist Sue Ann Swift told attendees, “Building these relationships does really make a difference.”
Dr. McNeill echoed Swift, saying, “The most important thing you’re going to do today is start or strengthen relationships. As family physicians who build trust with our patients, we’re well positioned to do that.”
NCAFP Advocacy Committee Chair and Secretary-Treasurer Dr. Deanna Didiano has been strengthening her ties to her lawmakers for over 10 years. “That first time I attended White Coat Wednesday as a resident was really eye-opening,” she says. “They really wanted my perspective as someone explaining how their constituents were struggling with health care access. Our conversations have become easier over time, and I know they really respect where we’re coming from and will listen.” She enjoyed sharing that experience with all her fellow attendees during White Coat Wednesday: “It was fun to have this group of physicians, residents, and students share these conversations while walking around the General Assembly today. It’s even better that we’re making actual change.”
After some last-minute schedule adjustments, Past NCAFP President Dr. Jessica Triche met for the second year in a row with Rep. Keith Kidwell (R) for a brief but supportive conversation about prior authorization reform. “It was a classic in-the-hallway meeting,” Dr. Triche says.
Third-year medical student Collette Cambey enjoyed meeting with Sen. Dan Blue (D) and Rep. Renée Price (D). “They were very receptive,” Cambey says. “We talked in great detail about the medical student loan programs and even went over the scheduled time limit. I lucked out by having a nice day full of amenable people to talk to.”
During this long legislative session, the NCAFP is advocating for increased primary care investment, prior authorization reforms, and increases in the FELs funding for medical students entering primary care in North Carolina. The prior authorization reforms took a big step forward on March 18, when Rep. Dr. Tim Reeder, Rep. Dr. Grant Campbell, Rep. Tricia Cotham, and Rep. John Bell introduced the Care First Act. The bill would standardize authorization timelines, give exemptions to clinicians with high approval rates, and create transparent lists of which kinds of care require prior authorization, among other key provisions. Because these reforms would reduce the administrative burden and delayed care that prior authorizations cause, the NCAFP supports the bill. During their meetings, White Coat Wednesday attendees explained how prior authorizations can harm their patients by delaying their care or even forcing them to use emergency departments.
Many attendees found that their lawmakers were receptive to the reforms. Dr. Kelley Lawrence says, “Rep. Todd Carver signed on to co-sponsor the Care First Act while we were meeting with him.”
Dr. Corinna Myer says, “Sen. Woodson Bradley was very receptive. She said she would reach out to her counterparts in the House to co-sponsor the bill.”
As of March 21, the Care First Act has received 56 new co-sponsors from both parties. Many of the House members whom representatives of NCAFP met with signed on as co-sponsors. During White Coat Wednesday, two of its primary sponsors, Dr. Tim Reeder (R) and Dr. Grant Campbell (R), met for nearly an hour with the NCAFP attendees in the House Chamber. They discussed their experience as the only physicians currently serving the legislature and answered questions from attendees. In particular, they discussed how much of their best legislative work happens through preventing unhelpful legislation from becoming law. “Calvin Coolidge said, ‘It’s much more important to kill bad bills than pass good ones,’” Rep. Dr. Reeder said. “When we do that, it’s still a victory for health policy in NC.”
Dr. Campbell also stressed the incremental and sometimes slow-moving work of reforming the many health policy concerns. “The way we improve health care is to identify individual issues and then solve them one by one,” he said. For this, he welcomed help from NCAFP members. “I’ll impress on you guys the critical importance of physician involvement. If you’re thinking of running for office as a physician, please do it.”
Dr. Reeder agreed by explaining how much more the legislature can learn from NC physicians. “There’s a huge part of health care that even we don’t know,” Dr. Reeder said. “The fun part is that that there’s a lot for us to learn, often with your help.”
"I never realized how easy it is to get in touch with my state legislators," said Dr. Victoria Boggiano. "White Coat Wednesday helped it seem more possible and way less daunting to get involved in advocating for policies that impact my work as a physician and my patients here in North Carolina."
To the family physicians, residents, and medical students participating, and to the representatives, senators, and legislative aides who gave their time to meet with NCAFP members: the NCAFP thanks you for your time and for your ongoing work to improve NC health care policies!
And if you didn’t attend the event but want to see how it went, see all the day’s pictures here!
The North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians, Inc. (NCAFP) is a nonprofit professional association headquartered in Raleigh which represents over 4,300 family physicians, family medicine residents, and medical students across the state. It is the largest medical specialty association in North Carolina and is a constituent chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians, based in Leadwood, KS.