“The AAOS is disappointed that the AMA has chosen to endorse this bill so early in this process,” Dr. Zuckerman wrote in an e-mail message. “We are especially disappointed that it ignored and abandoned many of its own policies, as approved by the AMA House of Delegates and the Board of Trustees.”
Referring to the initial draft of the House bill, which is 1,000 pages long, Dr. Zuckerman says that “the entire physician community finds several of the sections in this legislation problematic. We are of the mind that we need to work with Congress to remove provisions that we find harmful to patient access to care and work to include items that would benefit our patients before the bill gets to a final vote.”
The AMA’s endorsement of the House bill, revealed in a July 16 letter to U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D, N.Y.), came as a surprise to many observers. The AMA said it still seeks to remove certain parts of the House bill, including a provision cracking down on physician-owned hospitals. Also, both the AMA and the American College of Surgeons, which also endorses the House bill, have not endorsed a government-run health plan, which is a prominent feature of the bill.
Both the AMA and ACS said they were able endorse the House bill relatively early in the legislative process because they had been reading, analyzing and responding to preliminary drafts.
Many physicians also share Dr. Zuckerman’s concerns with what the House bill lacks, such as a provision for medical liability reform, which the AMA and virtually all other physician organizations have been campaigning for.
In addition, Peter Mandell, MD, chair of the AAOS Council on Advocacy, says he is wary of the powers of a proposed Independent Medicare Advisory Council that would set reimbursement rates for physicians, hospitals and other providers (click here to read his concerns) . Since the White House rolled out its IMAC proposal in July, Democrat representatives of many stripes have endorsed it but apparently it is not in the current draft of the House bill. According to the White House’s draft IMAC provision, the president would be required to approve or disapprove each section of IMAC’s recommendations and the recommendations could be blocked by a joint resolution of Congress.
View the AMA’s letter to U.S. Rep. Rangel.
Visit the Web site for AMA’s health reform.
Read the ACS’ House bill Q&A (pdf).
View the White House’s IMAC proposal.
