But they were busy!

Here are my latest bylined articles, which were published on the AMA website over the last couple of weeks:

• More than 150 scope-creep bills defeated in 2025
• Is partial heart transplant a safe and feasible option?
• Spending on GLP-1s has grown dramatically. Here are the details.
• AMA urges alternative approaches for two flawed CMS proposals
• 9 great JAMA resources for dermatologists to share with patients

Here is what I’ve been up to the last couple of months, at least in terms of what has made it to the AMA website as a story with my byline.

• Aug. 15: One wrinkle to surprise billing law? Health plans aren’t paying up
• Aug. 1: Latest ACIP move is dangerous to the nation’s health
• July 28, 2025: Hands off the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, says AMA; Shift to value-based care will stumble without help from Congress; Top medical journal editors defend their standards, independence
• July 25: White House AI plan could help boost transparency, oversight
• July 21: Physicians will see Medicare payments rise in 2026
• July 14: Inside payers’ latest plans to streamline prior authorization
• June 25: Senate budget-reconciliation bill risks worsening access to care
• June 11: Highlights from the 2025 AMA Annual Meeting
• June 9: In burnout work, take care with physicians’ personal health data

The AMA is applauding New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for safeguarding the vision of patients by recently vetoing legislation that would have allowed optometrists to perform a wide range of complex surgical procedures.

In her veto message, Lujan Grisham reiterated concerns raised by the AMA and other physician organizations, stating: “I am vetoing this bill because it sets a dangerous precedent for allowing nonsurgeons to perform surgical procedures.”

The governor’s message says “there is no persuasive evidence that this bill would increase access to care. Data shows that expansion of laser authority for optometrists has not resulted in a statistically significant increase in access to these procedures for patients.”

My latest for the AMA. Read the whole shebang.

The massive budget package passed by the House of Representatives Thursday includes provisions on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program that “could create additional administrative burdens for patients,” AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, noted in a May 20 letter to House leadership.

Such hurdles “in these two safety-net programs are a proven barrier to eligible individuals enrolling for coverage, especially given that of the estimated 25.3 million uninsured Americans in 2023, 6.3 million were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP but not enrolled, often due to administrative barriers.”

In his letter, Dr. Madara wrote that physicians “know that Medicaid is a vital component of America’s health care infrastructure, providing health insurance coverage to millions of patients and serving as a critical safety net for children, pregnant and postpartum women, seniors, and people with disabilities and serious health conditions.”

He added that “Medicaid coverage is associated with improved long-term health, lower rates of mortality, better health outcomes, fewer hospitalizations, better educational outcomes, and greater financial security.” The AMA’s letter goes on to describe the federal-state program as “an indispensable source of coverage for maternal health services, covering over 40% of all births in the United States, including almost 50% of births in rural areas.”

The House budget bill’s provisions “may increase the risk of wrongful denials or disenrollments, disrupting patients’ access to care and potentially affecting the continuity of care physicians strive to provide,” Dr. Madara wrote. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 8.7 million people would lose Medicaid coverage under these provisions, and 7.6 million more would be uninsured within 10 years.

My latest for the AMA. Read the whole shebang.

The AMA strongly supports moves in Congress that would adjust Medicare physician payment to rise with the rate of practice-cost inflation while warning that Medicaid proposals in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s budget-reconciliation text would add administrative complexity and lead to coverage interruptions that especially affect Americans with low incomes and those living in rural areas.

In response to the budget-reconciliation text released Sunday night, AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, wrote in strong support of section 44304 of the committee’s recommendations, which “provides the first Medicare physician payment update that is permanently built into baseline Medicare rates since the passage of the Medicare and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) in 2015.” Such a change was recommended by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and would link Medicare physician payments to the Medicare Economic Index (MEI).

My latest for the AMA. Read the whole shebang, which also addresses the impact of proposed Medicaid changes.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has recommended that Congress link next year’s physician payment update to the growth in the cost of providing care. The first move in that direction came last month as Congress failed to eliminate this year’s 2.8% cut, marking the fifth consecutive year of cuts.

“MedPAC has highlighted how Congress can strengthen Medicare policy,” said AMA President Bruce A. Scott, MD, who noted that the MedPAC “report offers a road map to Congress on how to address the cuts.”

Dr. Scott added that “the AMA appreciates commissioners and staff for listening to physicians around the country.”

MedPAC voted in March to recommend to Congress a 2026 payment update to physician practices of Medical Economic Index (MEI) minus 1 percentage point.

“MedPAC was created to advise Congress. Now, will lawmakers listen?” Dr. Scott said. “We welcome MedPAC’s help in highlighting the danger of doing nothing. The status quo is not an option.”

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

A short-term funding bill unveiled over the weekend entirely fails to address Medicare physician payment cuts that are endangering the medical practices that deliver high-quality care to older adult patients nationwide.

“Physicians across the country are outraged that Congress’s proposed spending package locks in a devastating fifth consecutive year of Medicare cuts, threatening access to care for 66 million Medicare patients,” said AMA President Bruce A. Scott, MD, an otolaryngologist in Louisville, Kentucky. “Despite repeated warnings, lawmakers are once again ignoring the dire consequences of these cuts and their impact both on patients and the private practices struggling to keep their doors open.”

My latest for the AMA. Read the whole shebang.

Hundreds of physicians in their white coats rallied in force in the oldest congressional office building in the nation’s capital to show their support for the elected leaders who are advancing bipartisan legislation that would stop the 2.83% cut in Medicare payments to physician practices this year while providing a 2% payment update.

The AMA is leading the charge to reform the Medicare payment system and strongly supports the measure—H.R. 879, the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act. This legislation would, effective April 1, prospectively cancel the physician payment cut that took effect Jan. 1. The measure has already gathered 63 bipartisan co-sponsors.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

Congress wrapped up its business in 2024 by failing to stop a fifth consecutive year of physician pay cuts that are threatening access to high-quality care, but Medicare Advantage (MA) plans learned from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that they are in line to get an average pay boost of 4.33% from 2025 to 2026.

Physicians, by contrast, are seeing 2.8% across-the-board cuts due to a broken and unsustainable Medicare payment system that especially affects patients with disabilities and those who live in rural areas. The congressional failure in late 2024 came despite AMA’s leading the charge to reform the Medicare payment system to avoid what AMA President Bruce A. Scott, MD, has called an “oncoming crisis” in medical care.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

The AMA House of Delegates has adopted new policies outlining physicians’ ethical obligation to provide or seek optimal palliative care for patients with serious illnesses who can benefit from comprehensive management of pain and other distressing symptoms—not only those with terminal illnesses or on the precipice of death.

“Physicians have clinical ethical responsibilities to address the pain and suffering occasioned by illness and injury and to respect their patients as whole persons,” says one of the new policies adopted at the latest AMA Interim Meeting, held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. “These duties require physicians to assure the provision of effective palliative care whenever a patient is experiencing serious, chronic, complex or critical illness, regardless of prognosis.”

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

Compared with previous years, 2024 saw a lower volume of state bills to inappropriately expand nonphysicians’ scope of practice. But that slight drop in legislative activity is not putting at ease the minds of the physicians and others working on legislative issues at state medical associations and national specialty societies, according to new AMA survey data.

In all, 87% of those surveyed by the AMA in the fall said scope of practice was their top advocacy priority, leading the pack of more than a dozen other critical issues affecting patients and physicians. Nearly all the state medical association representatives surveyed—94%—said scope of practice was their top legislative priority, compared with 67% of respondents from national specialty societies.

My latest for the AMA. The whole shebang.

Since my last post to this blog, I’ve had several bylined articles published on the AMA website. Click below to read further. My piece on Dr. Mukkamala’s recent diagnosis has been particularly well-received.

• AMA President-elect Bobby Mukkamala, MD, has a brain tumor
• Highlights from the 2024 AMA Interim Meeting
• Heartbreaking Medicare cuts start to hit home in Congress
• Bipartisan bill would stabilize Medicare physician pay for 2025
• Fixing IV fluid shortage only a start in addressing drug supply
• 1,800-plus health care organizations recognized on BP control
• What it’s really like in family medicine—from 6 physicians who know