Report from the 2013 AMA Interim Meeting

Thursday, November 21, 2013 11:16 AM

AMA President Ardis Hoven, MD, addresses the AMA House of Delegates

Physician delegates and leadership representing the Colorado Medical Society traveled to Washington DC to lobby the congressional delegation on Medicare physician payment and participated in the 2013 American Medical Association Interim Meeting, Nov. 16-19.

CMS leaders met with U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, and U.S. Reps. Mike Coffman, Ed Perlmutter and Doug Lamborn, and the staffs of U.S. Reps. Cory Gardner, Diana DeGette and Jared Polis on Nov. 19. CMS leaders urged the delegation to repeal the SGR this year or early in 2014 to make the Medicare program sustainable for patients and physicians.

There are currently bipartisan and bicameral Medicare payment transitions being debated in the closing weeks of the first session of this Congress. Colorado congressional delegation members all support the SGR repeal and several of the delegation members are actively working to make the transition a reality. Click here to read more about the Hill visits and click here to contact your congressman and the two U.S. senators to add your voice.

CMS members meet with U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet

Members of the AMA House of Delegates adopted numerous policies on important topics that impact the stability of physician practices, the quality of care and the advancement of patient health.

Here are the highlights:

• The Colorado delegation brought forth a resolution, approved by the CMS House of Delegates in September, to put in place a two-year “implementation period” for ICD-10 during which payers would not be allowed to deny payment based on specificity of ICD-10 diagnosis. Payers would be required to provide feedback for diagnosis determined to be incorrect. If unsuccessful in negotiating with payers, the resolution directs CMS to seek legislation to establish this implementation period. Click here to read the resolution.
• Delegates voted nearly unanimously to support a draft congressional framework that would repeal the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula, while continuing to advocate for future positive payment updates and the inclusion of alternative payment models developed by organized medicine. Click here for the full story.
• CMS Immediate Past President Jan Kief, MD, participated on a panel at the Organization of State Medical Association Presidents covering states’ experiences with the insurance exchanges. “Dr. Kief demonstrated that Colorado excels in bringing together stakeholders of varying philosophies to produce an exchange product that is not perfect but has both patients and payers participating actively,” said Lynn Parry, MD. Kief awaits official nomination from the AMA Board in April for a position that she seeks on the Council on Constitution and Bylaws for June 2014.
• Young Colorado physicians continued to have a large presence on the national stage. Resident Carolynn Francavilla, MD, brought forth two policies from the Resident-Fellow Section. And Steve Sherick, MD, chair of the AMA Young Physician Section, directed the assembly and meeting for young physicians nationally and passed two resolutions that he lead-authored, one on cost transparency and one on AMA membership dues being discounted by national medical malpractice companies.

Thanks to the physicians who attended the meeting: John Bender, MD, FAAFP; Jeffrey Cain, MD; Dave Downs, MD; Dean Drizin; Carolynn Francavilla, MD; Jan Kief, MD; Mark Laitos, MD; Jeremy Lazarus, MD; Katie Lozano, MD; Lee Morgan, MD; Tamaan Osbourne-Roberts, MD; Ray Painter, MD; Lynn Parry, MD; Paul Pukurdpol; Brigitta Robinson, MD; Alisa Sherick, MD; and Steve Sherick, MD.