AAHP Targets Doctors With Patients’ Rights ‘Webcasts’

To enlist the support of physicians in its "fight" against patients' rights legislation, the American Association of Health Plans plans to launch a series of "Webcasts" opposing the measures that will be sent to individual doctors, the Washington Post reports. By sending Webcasts and direct mailings to individual physicians, AAHP hopes to "bypass" the American Medical Association, which has come out in favor of the McCain-Kennedy-Edwards patients' rights bill (S 283). Earlier this week, AAHP launched its "Second Opinion" campaign by sending traditional direct mail to 25,000 doctors and by emailing a Webcast on the issue to another 25,000 doctors. The Webcast is formatted like a television news broadcast with an anchor, voice-overs, interviews and images, and can be viewed over the Internet. Mark Goodin of Strategic Communications, which developed the ad campaign, said, "We're not trying to pass it off as a real news broadcast," but added that the news format presents the information in a way that is "a lot easier to digest." Mark Merritt, AAHP vice president for strategic planning and public affairs, said that the Webcasts give the organization "an opportunity to find common ground" with physicians, rather than "hoping some reporter somewhere gets it right" (Sarasohn, Washington Post, 5/10).