Academy Endorses AMA Principles on Physician Payment Reform

The Academy has joined the American Medical Association (AMA) and 120 state medical and national specialty societies in an organized effort to educate policymakers

Last week, AMA released the Characteristics of a Rational Medicare Physician Payment System (PDF), a set of principles the Academy has helped develop that call on Congress to;

• Provide financial stability through a baseline positive annual update reflecting inflation in practice costs and eliminate, replace or revise budget neutrality requirements to allow for appropriate changes in spending growth. 
• Reward the value of care provided to patients and encourage innovation so practices and systems can be redesigned and continuously refined to provide high-value care and include historically noncovered services that improve care for all or a specific subset of patients, as well as for higher-risk and higher-cost populations. 
• Advance health equity and reduce disparities. Payment model innovations should be risk-adjusted and recognize physicians’ contributions to reducing health disparities, addressing social drivers of care and tackling health inequities. Physicians need support as they care for historically marginalized, higher risk, hard to reach or sicker populations. 

The Academy has endorsed these principles because, as previously reported, physicians need an annual update related to the cost of practice like other Medicare providers, such as hospitals and nursing homes. The Academy was part of the workgroup to develop these principles.

You can advocate at home and talk to your representative and senators about this issue during the upcoming August recess, when most members of Congress are back in their home districts talking to constituents.