DB Execs Get Creative as Revenues Shrink

The new lobbying relationship has proven quite symbiotic, with Ladner receiving a quicker response to her calls for grassroots lobbying on specific pieces of state legislation from NAMI members than individual psychiatrists have typically had the time to provide.

The idea of sharing office space with other mental health advocacy groups was intriguing to Rebecca DeFilippo, executive director of the Eastern Missouri Psychiatric Society. The search for money-saving ideas was one of the reasons she came to the November meeting, she said. However, she found some initiatives better lend themselves to imitation than others.

“What works for one district branch doesn't necessarily work for another,” she noted.

One new collaboration could provide a useful model strategy to other psychiatrist groups. The Indiana Psychiatric Society (IPS) and the Kentucky Psychiatric Medical Association opted to hold a combined annual symposium in April that is expected to attract a larger number of attendees than either would separately. Organizers also expect the combined meeting will have lower costs—which the DBs will split—than the total cost of two separate meetings, said Sara Stramel, IPS executive director.

In addition to the efforts of DBs to cut expenses by pooling resources with other groups, many DBs have taken steps to secure new sources of income.

The Maryland DB, for example, has attempted to replace lost pharmaceutical advertising with more general, nonmedical advertising aimed at the MPS's high-income members. Additionally, the district branch may help its members seek federal grants that would be used to match psychiatrists with community health centers that are required to include mental health services.

The MPS also acquired a paying contract last year to provide psychiatrists who could perform peer reviews for the state licensing board of psychiatrists who have had complaints filed against them.

“Each district branch has a very valuable resource, and that's our members,” Hummel emphasized.

Similarly, the IPS has sought to “raise psychiatrists' profiles” in Indiana to better influence public policy and state health care funding decisions. Among the planned publicity-campaign events are community roundtables that the DB will sponsor on timely mental health topics affecting local communities.

Several DBs also have moved aggressively to all-digital communications to eliminate printing and delivery costs. Some executives were concerned, however, that such a switch would be disruptive to their members and plan to phase it in over time, while other DBs simply told members about the switch and dropped all printing, with no complaints.

“We're trying to challenge the conventional wisdom of how we have always done things,” said Robin Huffman, executive director of the North Carolina Psychiatric Association and chair of the DB executives' group.