ACEP is the only EM organization with voting representation at the American Medical Association’s annual meeting of its House of Delegates (HOD). We sent a contingent to ensure your concerns were raised at the AMA meeting in Chicago, where decisions are made, and policies are set that impact your everyday practice.
ACEP prioritizes AMA attendance and budgets to provide your colleagues the opportunity to amplify your concerns. We are fiercely proud to serve as your voice and lead efforts to activate the full physician community around the changes that you need and deserve.
Voting is ongoing, and we will keep you updated in the coming days. Here’s a look at ACEP-led resolutions and actions under consideration at the AMA meeting this week:
ADOPTED
Resolution 709: Improvements to Patient Flow in the U.S. Healthcare System
In order to bring the weight of the entire house of medicine to ACEP's efforts to address boarding, ACEP authored and introduced a resolution calling for AMA to join stakeholders in our activities to improve patient flow through the health care system.
Read more about ACEP-led solutions to the boarding crisis.
Resolution 710: The Regulation of Private Equity in the Healthcare Sector
We introduced a resolution calling on the AMA to create guidelines and advocate for regulations that preserve physician autonomy and operational authority amid the increasing corporatization of medicine. Additional amendments that ACEP supported then broadened language to cover entities with corporate control of medical practices.
Read more about ACEP efforts to protect physicians and mitigate harm from corporatization and consolidation.
RECOMMENDED FOR ADOPTION:
Board of Trustees (BOT) Report 13: Prohibiting Covenants Not-to-Compete
Action: ACEP testified to offer an amendment to compel the AMA to oppose all restrictive covenants, including between physician employers and physician employees, and regularly update the AMA's state restrictive covenant legislative template. The Reference Committee recommended that the amendment be adopted.
Read more about ACEP support for a ban on physician non-compete agreements.
Related:
Detailed explanations of AMA resolutions can be found here and here
ACEP policy on corporate practice of medicine
Resolution 204 Staffing Ratios in the Emergency Department
Action: ACEP spoke in support of the call for all EDs to be staffed 24/7 by a qualified physician. An ACEP-supported resolved clause would compel the AMA to seek federal legislation or regulation prohibiting staffing ratios that do not allow for proper physician supervision of non-physician practitioners in the ED.
Read more about ACEP efforts to require physician-led care in every emergency department.
Resolution 210: Support for Physicians Pursuing Collective Bargaining and Unionization
ACEP testified in support of this resolution and called for the AMA to update a study of opportunities for the AMA or physician associations to support the collective bargaining process, including but not limited to unionization. The Reference Committee recommended adoption.
As part of our testimony, we provided the recently developed white paper that the ACEP Medical-Legal Committee developed on the topic. Read more about ACEP efforts related to unionization.
Resolution 704: Pediatric Readiness in Emergency Departments
ACEP offered a friendly amendment to ensure that standards are predictable for those seeking recognition, and the resolution was recommended for adoption with ACEP’s amendments.
Read more about ACEP and AAP efforts to encourage pediatric readiness.
