AMA Update

ASLMS / Specialty Service Society (SSS) AMA Interim Meeting Summary

November 15-19, 2019

This was the first SSS meeting that ASLMS was credentialed to attend. I served on the SSS nominating committee where we interviewed a candidate for each of the following positions: Chair (Shannon Kilgore, MD), Vice Chair (Meredith Englander, MD), Secretary (Steven Chen, MD) and 2 at large governing council members (Michael Simon,MD, David Tayloe, MD). We approved all the candidates for election at the 2020 AMA annual meeting. The SSS endorsed all 7 SSS members running for various AMA offices (Board of Trustees: Ilse Levin, MD and David Tayloe, MD) at the 2020 AMA annual meeting.

The AMA interim meeting deals primarily with advocacy issues. SSS discussed a number of resolutions throwing their support behind varied resolutions and council reports including ones dealing with governance (whether or not medical students should be counted as part of specialty organizations), co-pay accumulators, government regulation of renal transplantation, board certification of physician assistants, prison to community healthcare continuity, private payers and office visit policies, sunscreen in outdoor public spaces, lab results and their immediate availability, patient access to specialized wheelchairs, autopsy availability in hospitals, PBM pricing transparency, step therapy reform, automobile pollution health effects, tobacco sales in pharmacies, the health impact of cannabis products, use of CBD oil in hospitals, veterans courts, childcare at AMA meetings, LBGTQ issues, net neutrality, AMA elections, SCOPE of practice issues by podiatrists, radiation oncologists’ supervisory roles, involuntary organ harvesting in China and regulation of vaping products among the 100+ resolutions presented at the annual meeting. These resolutions and reports were discussed and SSS decided to support.

The resolution relevant to ASLMS was the resolution proffered by the Dermatology Section Council and co-sponsored by more than a dozen specialty societies, state delegations and caucuses dealing with the issue of board certification of physician assistants. The resolution calls for the AMA to oppose board certification of physician assistants as the term “board certified” should only be used in the setting of an ABMS/AOA board certification of physicians. The resolution garnered strong support in reference committee and was adopted by the AMA house of delegates.

The one report relevant to ASLMS was a proposal to standardize the counting of members of specialty organizations so that the process was uniform across all specialties. The proposal wanted to change current AMA policy to only count physicians that are eligible to serve on committees or in governance (hold office). The effect of the change would be to exclude medical students from the count of members for purposes of apportioning delegate seats among the various specialties. This will be beneficial if ASLMS qualifies and decides to apply for membership in the AMA House of Delegates. After spirited debate at the reference committee and at the House of Delegates, the report was adopted and is now AMA policy.

In order for ASLMS achieve admittance to the AMA House of Delegates, we have to achieve a 20% rate of AMA membership among our physician (MD and DO) members, including residents and fellows, eligible for AMA membership. I encourage ASLMS to actively encourage our members to join the AMA so that we can increase our voice in the house of medicine.

I appreciate the opportunity to serve as your SSS representative.

Respectfully submitted

George J. Hruza, MD, MBA
ASLMS SSS Representative