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Featured topic and speakers
Is becoming an American Medical Association member worth it? What does the American Medical Association do for its members? Why is it so hard to be a doctor right now?
Our guest is newly inaugurated AMA President Bobby Mukkamala, MD, who shares what it means to him to take over the presidency at this pivotal time and his goals for the future of medicine. AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger hosts.
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Speaker
- Bobby Mukkamala, MD, president, American Medical Association
Transcript
Dr. Mukkamala: Our patients and our colleagues are why we fight. And why we will continue to fight until our health care system truly reflects the values of our profession—compassion, access, a respect for human dignity and rights. We have a long way to go. But I'm committed to this work, and I am ready for this fight.
Unger: Hello and welcome to the AMA Update video and podcast. Today we're speaking with the new president of the AMA, Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, who is joining us from Flint, Michigan. We'll get his thoughts on the year ahead and discuss how he and the AMA will be fighting for physicians in the year ahead. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer in Chicago. Dr. Mukkamala, welcome and congratulations on becoming the next president of the AMA.
Dr. Mukkamala: Thanks, Todd. Very much appreciate it, and very much feel like a fish out of water. It's kind of a new thing, but I'm enjoying it. I'm going to enjoy it.
Unger: Well, you've had quite a year, and it's hard to believe that after our last AMA meeting back in the fall you had just found out that you had a brain tumor. And now, six months later, you've undergone treatment. You started your recovery. And you got inaugurated as president of the AMA.
That's a lot to go on. Quite a journey. So what is going through your mind right now?
Dr. Mukkamala: I grew up going to Catholic school five days a week and then Hindu temple on the weekend, and I was just confused about what's going on up there. But I can't help but think about exactly what you mentioned, the timing of this being president-elect, realizing I had a brain tumor, going through the medical system that we so much advocate for improvement of and patient access to, going through that myself, having the tumor majority removed and now dealing with things like pharmaceutical costs—I mean, the pill that I take for this thing is a quarter million dollars a year.
But all of that lining up in the six months before I became inaugurated as president, I just think that's too much to be coincidence. And I can't help but think that this was a plan.
Unger: Well, this has been a really busy time for you, and not a big secret, a busy time in the world as medicine. So it's an interesting time for you to start your presidency. There's been some encouraging progress but also some new challenges. And so I'm curious, what do you hope to accomplish in the year ahead?
Dr. Mukkamala: I guess my main goal is when I look at what my mom and dad's practice was like—so they're both retired physicians, a radiologist and a pediatrician. Well, mom and dad, pediatrician and radiologist. And I just think about how they manage their practice.
This was a time where 70% of physicians were in private practice. And they managed their own, and they loved it. I just talked to my mom today, and she just described how she could work all day in the office and fully enjoy it. And then coming home to take care of a bright kid like me was her main pain in the neck.
But she loved her practice. And now I think about the suffering that we have. We love our patients. We love facing them and taking care of them.
But dealing with the management of their care, dealing with a dozen different insurances, all with different questions on their prior authorization, the finances of each of these organizations and the symbol we have to have on our computer to click on to get through to a particular insurance, these are all things that take away from the happiness that my own parents' generation had. And so in that sense, I would love to go backwards to get to that level of happiness. And I think that means putting that patient-physician relationship as the most important thing, and the rest of it should support that as opposed to vice versa.
Unger: Well, you've talked about a number of different things that we could broadly capture under the term "administrative burdens" but a lot going up against physicians, whether you're in private practice or even necessarily working for a health system, so many challenges out there. How do you prioritize and think about how to address these?
Dr. Mukkamala: I guess, having gone through a health care thing myself, when I think about what we spend on health care in our country and what we get for that investment relative to the rest of the world—as president-elect, I got to go to the World Medical Association meetings, and I'll continue that for the next couple of years. And just looking at where we are on the planet and the differences between different countries on that planet, I think that for what we invest, we should be getting more.
And I think that the problem that's causing that to not be that is that the separation of that patient-physician relationship from all the other aspects of managing the care of the people in our country, the administrative cost of doing that, where all the dollars are going. I looked at a graph recently, and it was the increase in reimbursement to physicians that are in the rooms taking care of patients relative to the administrative cost of health care, which I thought it was a mistake.
It said 3,000%. I thought it was 300%. But no, it was 3,000%. And that's just the wrong direction to go. And so I hope that when I get the microphone, I can talk about what we need to set as a priority and make everything else an investment in achieving that goal, which is better health in our country.
Unger: Now, in our last conversation talked about this issue, and it's come up a couple of times already, the physician-patient relationship, when you think about it from the reverse, from the patient's standpoint, how do you think that they should understand this idea of the physician experience, physician-patient relationship, and maybe get behind the advocacy initiatives like prior authorization, for instance?
Dr. Mukkamala: Yeah, and I see patients in my office every day. I saw about 25 today. And unfortunately, when I see them in my office and I found out that they came from an urgent care or they use urgent care as their primary care because there's just not enough primary care physicians in Flint, Michigan, let alone the rest of the country, it's just something that they've gotten used to.
They figure it's the new normal, that if I've got a problem, it's going to take too long or I can't find a primary care physician. I'm just going to use urgent cares. And naturally, these aren't urgent things, but they're convenient things or necessary things because of the lack in our system. And so when I talk to them, I say you know what? This is not the way to manage chronic issues or even just health care checkups.
Preventative medicine is not what an urgent care is for. It's not what it does. And so what I say to them and what I would love to say to the country—and I would love to have a lot of patient audiences because I'm a patient, big time. And they know when I speak that I know what they go through.
I mean, I would love to tell them is that we need to advocate together for a better health care system so they can have a primary care physician. And very much I'm passionate about prevention of disease. We should take great care of people that get sick, but we got to do a better job of preventing that illness.
Unger: Absolutely. Dr. Mukkamala, we're really looking forward to seeing what you do as president. I have two final questions for you on that topic. Number one is, what's one final message you'd like to share with physicians as you head into your presidency?
Dr. Mukkamala: Well, I guess what I would say and what I say in every single one of my talks with physicians when I travel the country is the important role of the American Medical Association to address all of those things that are burning in our minds, that causes us to have burnout, where instead of working until we're 70 something, like my parents did, we're looking at retiring in our 60s because it's just such a pain in the neck to deal with it. And the best way to solve that "pain in the neck" problem is by the work of an organization that represents us, that represents physicians.
And that's the American Medical Association. And so instead of representing everybody but having a membership that's 20% of everybody, we need to improve that. And that's my goal in having conversations with them is conveying what the importance is of the work of the AMA, and how it benefits their patient-physician relationship so that they will join and we will have a more effective group.
Unger: That's a great message. Final question for you, maybe hard to think about, but I want you to project yourself a year into the future after your year of being president. What's one thing you really hope you have under your belt after that year?
Dr. Mukkamala: I guess I would love to convince anybody that has the authority to do this, to focus more on prevention of disease. I think that will put us in a direction—even if it's one step in the right direction, if we can go in two different directions, even one step this way towards a healthier country that doesn't get as sick is a good step in the right direction. And that would just take one year to take that step, and i would be so happy if that's the direction we started to go.
Unger: Well, that's certainly a really important direction and very much discussed right now in terms of timing, and I look forward to talking to you a year from now. But in the meantime, really look forward to a powerful and productive year with you as president. So thank you so much for joining us and we'll look forward to talking with you again soon.
To support the work of the AMA in fighting for physicians, Dr. Mukkamala and I encourage you to become an AMA member at ama-assn.org/joinnow. That wraps up today's episode, and we'll be back soon with another AMA Update.
Be sure to subscribe for new episodes and find all our videos and podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts. Thanks for joining us today. Please take care.
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.
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