Every member of the health care team plays a vital role in delivering exceptional care. Understanding who is providing that care is critical to patient decision-making. Unfortunately, patients can become confused by the acronyms, jargon and increased use of the term “doctor” in the clinical setting.

It’s time to end this confusion for patients and allow them to make the best decisions for their care.

ISMA and the Indiana Physician Coalition are calling on the Indiana General Assembly to increase transparency in health care by requiring that advertisements clearly state a health care professional’s license type; that identification with license type be worn in appropriate clinical settings; and that medical specialty designations be reserved for physician specialists. 

Take action!
Visit the Indiana Physician Coalition Action Center on health care licensure transparency. There, you can download an UPDATED fact sheet with talking points and directly email your state senator and representative to ask them for their support.

It’s critical that members of the General Assembly hear from physicians NOW, before the start of the legislative session in January. Don’t wait! 

Why is this important?
An independent statewide public opinion survey in 2020 revealed that 85% of Hoosiers say it’s important to know the training and education of health care professionals when seeking care. After all, 76% of Hoosiers older than 40 feel that physicians should have primary responsibility for leading and coordinating their health care. However, nearly 40% of Hoosiers think that NPs go through the same training and education as a physician. Meanwhile, 25% of Hoosiers are not sure if the health care professional they’ve seen the past few years was a physician – or a nonphysician practitioner. 

Be sure to check out INphysicians.org for more information and follow the coalition on Facebook and Twitter.