WORKING FOR YOU: The Profession of Medicine Needs AMA

Peter Bretan Jr., MD, FACS

While less than 25% of the nation’s physicians are members of the American Medical Association, the AMA has been and continues to be the largest and most accepted voice for the profession of medicine. We physicians tend to spend our time and attention with our own specialty societies, but only AMA represents our entire profession.

With the Affordable Care Act in full swing, including the planned expansion of coverage to more than 32 million previously uninsured patients nationwide, our state and national legislators are continually asking where AMA and the California Medical Association stand on these issues. Whether or not you agree with the many provisions of the ACA, it is now the law of the land and will affect us all.

The house of medicine has one voice nationwide through the AMA, and every legislator knows that. In their eyes, none of the specialty groups speak in a manner that gets traction with the White House or Congress. AMA gives us the best chance of getting bills modified to be more palatable for all of us and our patients.

AMA members laboriously seek consensus via the AMA House of Delegates twice a year. These meetings are an amazing process that includes many minority voices, along with thorough debate, dissent and finally consensus. Leaders are chosen by election, and the process is fair, transparent, durable, sustainable and--most important--intensely democratic.

Although California is the most populous state, CMA needs many more of our physicians to join AMA so that we can adequately represent our patients and profession in this formidable process. The more AMA members, the more delegates and the better our ability to move CMA policies nationally. States are allocated one delegate per 1,000 AMA members. With this formula, Californian has only 22 AMA delegates; almost identical to the delegation size of the Texas Medical Society. We can do better … much better.

AMA legal successes are legend. In one famous case, Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, Cal., tried to discard the bylaws of the medical staff. CMA asked the AMA legal team to assist, and they successfully overturned this egregious act against the hospital practice of medicine. Medical staff self-governance bylaws are now standardized by AMA and CMA and used throughout the country as the foundation for all medical staff bylaws. The ability of the Marin Healthcare District to regain their independence from Sutter Health is a direct consequence of these protections, and from the strong organization of local physicians at Marin General Hospital. What has arisen in Marin is a true partnership of physicians and hospital, benefiting all patients in this thriving medical community.

On the national scene, to name just one example, AMA has partnered with several state medical societies to help return almost half a billion dollars to physicians (including those in California) who were systematically underpaid for out-of-network services.

AMA believes there is a national imperative to improve the health of the nation. They also believe that physician leadership is critical to the successful evolution of healthcare in a patient-focused delivery system.

Now is the time to help support and grow AMA leadership. Join us in finding the common ground on which we can shape a healthcare system that delivers high-quality care with better health outcomes; that prepares physicians to meet the needs of a continuously evolving system; and that provides professional satisfaction and sustainable practices for all who choose healing as their life’s work.

As physicians we must continue to enable a system that provides access to care for all, and we have a chance to accomplish this through efficient implementation of the Affordable Care Act. You can help us strengthen our professional voice in these endeavors by supporting not only CMA, but also AMA.

To join the American Medical Association, visit www.ama-assn.org.

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Dr. Bretan, a Novato urologist, has been the CMA District X representative to AMA since 2003.

Email: bretanp@msn.com