Bill Klaproth (host): This is an AAOMS On The Go Podcast. I'm Bill Klaproth. And I'm pleased to welcome with me today, Dr. Libby Kutcipal. She is the immediate past Chair for the AAOMS Committee on Governmental Affairs and District 6 OMSPAC Board Member, as we talk about Amplifying OMS Voices: Grassroots Advocacy in Action. Dr. Kutcipal, thank you for your time. Great to talk with you.

Dr. Libby Kutcipal: Thanks for having me, Bill.

Host: Yeah, absolutely. So, let's talk about grassroots advocacy efforts. So when it comes to that, why are they essential for oral and maxillofacial surgeons?

Dr. Libby Kutcipal: Grassroots efforts are efforts made from the ground up, hence the name grassroots. So it's where we start. In our case, it's the voice of our membership. This includes residents, faculty, private practitioners, basically any of our members. Federal legislators want to hear from us as their constituents. We vote them in. I actually recently listened to the podcast with Dr. Jordan about advocacy and Dr. Morrison about Day on the Hill. And those two podcasts really set us up to talk about grassroots efforts.

Host: I love that. Anything else you want to add about that?

Dr. Libby Kutcipal: Yeah. The AAOMS Grassroots Program is called the OMS Action Network. I'm sure members have seen it in their AAOMS emails and publications. The OMS Action Network helps to organize and coordinate grassroots efforts so we can all work together on these issues. Some things included in the OMS Action Network are the Advocacy Alerts. These are our text messages that members can reply to to send a letter to their member of Congress about AAOMS priority issues. Signing up for these alerts only takes a few minutes. It's really easy. And once you're signed up, it takes less than a minute to send off a letter.

The OMS Action Network can also help arrange visits to Congressional offices, or even for a member of Congress to visit your OMS office. Bill, I had a member of Congress visit my office a few years ago. And I was really surprised how little she knew about our profession.

Host: Well, that's why all of this advocacy work is so important, making sure that the people that need to know about the specialty know about the specialty. So, thank you for explaining that to us. Can you share some specific examples of successful grassroots initiatives led by AAOMS and how those efforts have directly benefited the OMS community and patients?

Dr. Libby Kutcipal: Yeah, definitely. I think one thing that's important to remember is that often these campaigns are a marathon. It's not a sprint. They have to be kind of gone over and over again to reach a successful mission. One thing that's notable is OMS has advocated for military members to receive the same pay as their medical colleagues. This was really a big win for us.

Another win was removing insurer's exemptions from federal antitrust laws. This was a great step toward greater competition in that realm. Another issue that we're currently working on is student loan reform. We all know this is a big problem, especially for our residents just coming out of training, who can often accrue hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. We're helping with efforts to get the READY Act passed. This stands for the Resident Education Deferred Interest Act. It's not loan forgiveness in any way, but it would defer student loan interest for residents who are in both medical and dental residencies. Then on a state point-of-view, AAOMS has also recently helped the North Carolina Society of OMS with a recent anesthesia challenge.

Host: Yeah, that's interesting. I love the work that you do in these areas. So, let's talk about this. In what ways does AAOMS support and empower its members to become effective advocates for their profession and what are the resources or tools that are available to assist them in their advocacy work?

Dr. Libby Kutcipal: Well, I think there's some great training videos and educational videos on the AAOMS website. I really like them because they're easy to understand and they're concise, so you're not in for an hour's long commitment. It's usually really quick, but gives you a great overview of how things work.

VoterVoice is the text messaging system that helps quickly and easily send letters to Congress. It used to be an app, and now it works through this text messaging system. I've also had the staff at AAOMS help me schedule visits with members of Congress, both locally and in Washington, DC.

And then adding on to Dr. Morrison's podcast, I'm going to put a quick plug in for Day on the Hill. It's a really great opportunity to meet with members of Congress to discuss AAOMS priority issues.

Host: Yeah, Day on the Hill sounds amazing. So, Dr. Kutcipal, could you share some memorable stories or experiences that highlight the impact of OMS involvement in AAOMS's grassroots efforts, demonstrating the tangible difference it makes in advancing the field of oral and maxillofacial surgery?

Dr. Libby Kutcipal: Sure. As I mentioned earlier, I had a member of the US Congress visit my office a few years ago. Her real only experience with an OMS was for the extraction of her husband's third molars. Strangely, she was really interested in our autoclaves and sterilizers and that portion of the office. It was then that I realized how little she actually knew about our profession. It was a great opportunity to educate her about oral and maxillofacial surgery and our current legislative issues. Plus, I was in my home office, so it was really easy to give her a tour and show her everything that was going on.

Another memorable event for me was a local event with one of our US senators. It was supposed to be an in-person event with other medical professionals, but it had to be rescheduled to a Zoom call because the Senator was ill. Well, the host actually was also ill, so they called on me to be the virtual host. Nothing like being thrown in head first. This then generated an invitation to a smaller local event for the senator, which was really small and intimate. I was there with Dr. Egbert, and we actually had the opportunity to have a really nice chat with her. Shortly thereafter, I was in DC and was able to tie in these events when I met with her congressional staff. As Dr. Jordan mentioned, advocacy is all about building relationships.

Host: How true is that? So, the overriding point here is we need people to be involved. So, how can individual OMSs get involved in AAOMS's grassroots advocacy effort? And what role can they play in shaping healthcare policies and regulations?

Dr. Libby Kutcipal: Well, Bill, I think there's a number of ways for members to get involved. I think a really easy way is to respond to the calls to action and use the VoterVoice to get letters to members of Congress. These texts via VoterVoice won't blow up your text messaging inbox. They only come out every few months when the letters are really needed. And it's super easy. You literally just click on a button once it's all set up.

I think another way is to attend Day on the Hill. It can be a little daunting at first when you've never been. But the AAOMS staff sets up participants really well to go to these legislative offices and have just a nice conversation about our priority issues. Like I said, many of them know really little about certain areas and I think just educating them on what our priorities are is really helpful. And then, they can also come back to you or they can come back to our DC staff when they've got questions. And it's a really great resource for them.

Other opportunities might be to host a legislator in your office, like I did. It was actually a really low key, quick event. But I think really memorable and powerful for that member of Congress. And it's also a little bit fun because it's your office, so you're really familiar with everything. You're kind of in the driver's seat on that one. And then, I think just getting involved with the process. A lot of times we think that other people are going to do these things, but it's really up to us.

Host: Absolutely. It definitely is up to us, and having a seat at the table is so important. So, these are all great examples, Dr. Kutcipal. So, thank you for sharing those. And this has really been informative. I want to thank you for your time. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you want to add?

Dr. Libby Kutcipal: If anyone has any questions, they can reach out to the AAOMS Governmental Affairs staff. They're so awesome and super knowledgeable and can really help with any questions. So, I think that's a really good resource.

Host: That is a great resource. Dr. Kutcipal, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it.

Dr. Libby Kutcipal: Oh, no problem. Thank you so much for having me.

Host: Absolutely. And to participate in AAOMS's advocacy efforts, visit aaoms.org/takeaction. That's aaoms.org/takeaction. You can also sign up for text message alerts by texting AAOMS, that's A-A-O-M-S, AAOMS to 50457. And once again, that is Dr. Libby Kutcipal. We thank her for her time. And for more information, you can visit aaoms.org. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it on your social channels and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Thanks for listening.