The Department of Health and Human Services is responding to pleas from the AMA and others for regulatory flexibility to help ease the major disruptions in claims processing and payment linked to the cyber outage at UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Change Healthcare. While the AMA appreciates the flexibilities that HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced, the administration needs to go further to provide relief for physicians.

“Many physician practices operate on thin margins, and we are especially concerned about the impact on small and/or rural practices, as well as those that care for the underserved,” said AMA President Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH. “The AMA urges federal officials to go above and beyond what has been put in place and include financial assistance such as advanced payments for physicians.”

The cybersecurity-linked outage is costing the health care industry an estimated $100 million a day.

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The U.S. Congress has again failed to stop in its entirety a pay cut that will threaten Medicare patients’ access to high-quality physician care.

In a federal budget deal struck to continue operating the government, the House of Representatives has voted to reduce by about half—1.68%—of the 2024 3.37% across-the-board physician pay cut that took effect in January. The Senate is expected to vote for the deal Thursday, and the new pay rate starts March 9.

The cut comes on top of last year’s 2% Medicare physician pay reduction, and the new payment rate is not retroactive.

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The nation’s worsening opioid-overdose epidemic has prompted the AMA to call for the elimination of dose-limit barriers to ensure adequate buprenorphine treatment for patients with opioid use disorder.

Now, patients and physicians encounter strict dose limits set by health insurers and other payers based on drug labels approved by the Food and Drug Administration decades ago, when illicitly manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogues were not a major cause of mortality as it is today. Buprenorphine reduces the risk of fatal overdose, eases opioid withdrawal symptoms and cravings, and helps sustain recovery for patients with an opioid-use disorder.

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The AMA and more than 120 other national medical organizations and state medical societies last week called on Congress to pass legislation to reverse the 3.37% Medicare physician pay cuts that took effect Jan. 1.

But Congress kicked the can down the road, passing a continuing resolution (CR) that funds four appropriations bills through March 1 and the other eight through March 8 to avoid a government shutdown. While that CR did delay cuts to safety-net hospitals, community health centers and more, it did not reverse the physician pay cut—a clear disservice to the country’s Medicare patients and the doctors who care for them.

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Under the leadership of Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a final rule making important reforms to prior authorization to cut patient care delays and electronically streamline the process for physicians. Together, the changes will save physician practices an estimated $15 billion over 10 years, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“When a doctor says a patient needs a procedure, it is essential that it happens in a timely manner,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Too many Americans are left in limbo, waiting for approval from their insurance company.” The administration’s action, he said, “will shorten these wait times by streamlining and better digitizing the approval process.”

CMS did the right thing in “heeding patients and the physician community in a final rule that makes important reforms in government-regulated health plans’ prior authorization programs for medical services,” said AMA President Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH.

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AI and its potential implications to reshape the world for better—or worse—is the hot topic among thought leaders in every industry and was in the spotlight at CES, the powerful tech event held in Las Vegas each year.

The AMA’s leadership to ensure that health care AI improves patient care in a way that is transparent and trustworthy was reflected in the presence of AMA President Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH, at two CES panel discussions on the issue.

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While the presidential election will no doubt absorb a great deal of attention this year, at the state legislative level there is policy to be made that will collectively affect the health of the nation—for better or worse.

For the people working at state medical associations and national medical specialty societies, new AMA survey data makes clear what lies at the top of their list of legislative priorities for 2024: scope of practice.

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As drug shortages continue to worsen and negatively affect patient care across the U.S., the AMA has adopted policy to strengthen its ongoing efforts to address this growing public health crisis.

The AMA’s recently adopted policy supports diversifying drug manufacturing and supply chains and stabilizing the generic drug market, as well as opposing practices such as pharmacy benefits manager formulary restrictions that worsen drug shortages. According to statistics from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a spike in new drug shortages in 2022 has led to the highest levels of drug shortages in the U.S. since 2014.

“Drug shortages are the highest we’ve seen in a decade, making it more and more difficult for patients and physicians across the country to get necessary medications,” said AMA Immediate Past President Jack Resneck Jr., MD.

“The nation’s drug supply shouldn’t be in constant turmoil because there aren’t enough manufacturers, or the profit margin is too thin to incentivize production,” Dr. Resneck added. “We must continue to push for actions to mitigate drug shortages that will help ensure the drug supply chain is more resilient and adaptable so our patients can get the medications they need when they need them.”

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Bipartisan support to cancel the entirety of the 3.37% Medicare physician pay cut that took effect Jan. 1 is growing, with nearly 200 members of Congress co-signing a letter urging House and Senate leaders to expeditiously pass legislation to address 2024 Medicare payment cuts.

“We in Congress must continue our partnership with the physician and provider community to ensure that Medicare patients continue to have access to quality care,” says the letter, led by Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, MD (R-Iowa), Ami Bera, MD (D-Calif.), Larry Bucshon, MD (R-Ind.) and Kim Schrier, MD (D-Wash.).

Physicians, who “are confronting inflationary pressures and workforce shortages, need Congress to prevent this cut, which will add significant burdens to the health care infrastructure and the communities they serve,” says the letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), as well as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

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Physicians and medical students’ time is more squeezed than ever, so it’s no surprise that a growing number of physicians and future doctors are taking advantage of listening to podcasts to enhance their knowledge of trends in medicine while commuting, running errands, making dinner or doing housework.

In 2023, more than 530,000 episodes of AMA podcasts were downloaded as listeners learned from doctors and other experts who give voice to an array of original AMA podcasts.

Below, find six of our top episodes from across the AMA podcast network.

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This year saw hundreds of bills introduced across the nation to inappropriately expand scope of practice for nonphysician providers such as nurse practitioners, advanced practice registered nurses, optometrists, psychologists, naturopaths, pharmacists, physician assistants, athletic trainers and—yes—even music therapists.

New research, some aided by the AMA Health Workforce Mapper but much it conducted by physicians and experts outside the AMA, is reshaping our understanding of how scope of practice expansions affect health system costs, care quality and more.

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The AMA is strongly supporting a bill introduced in Congress that would completely eliminate the 3.37% Medicare physician pay cut scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. …

With the bill’s introduction, now “patients and physicians have a clear-eyed view on how to protect Medicare from injurious cuts,” said AMA President Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH.

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Physicians can be healers, caregivers, scientists, advocates, change-makers and decision-makers. They also are often very busy, which is why our readers are the beneficiaries of the physicians who generously shared their personal stories, innovative approaches and stirring insights.

Many of the doctors who are fighting burnout, making telehealth work in practice, advancing health equity, and inspiring others with their physician advocacy across the career spectrum have taken time from their hectic schedules this year to explore how they are moving medicine forward in exclusive, in-depth Q&A-format interviews with the AMA.

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