“The American health care system evolves at a pace that would not have seemed possible not too long ago,” AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James L. Madara, MD, said in his address Saturday at the 2015 AMA Interim Meeting. That’s why focusing on producing thriving practices that provide quality patient care is the most important aspect of health care today.
The pace of change in the health care system is rapid, “but change is a human constant,” Dr. Madara said. “To deal with such change, physician voices must be as unified as possible.”
“Thankfully, physicians aren’t just watching,” he added. “We’re actively working to shape the future for the betterment of public health.”
With the intent of sculpting the future more sensibly, the AMA has taken action in several ways:
- When two proposed mergers of some of the nation’s largest health insurers were announced earlier this year, “the AMA strongly stated concerns and laid bare the potential negative ramifications,” Dr. Madara said. Allowing these mergers to take place would be destructive to patients’ ability to choose the most appropriate care plan and would hinder physicians’ ability to provide quality care to those patients.
- In an effort to shape the changes in payment and delivery with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), the AMA, acting through collaboration with working groups of state and specialty society CEOs “assembled to shape changes legislated by the Medicare Reform Law,” Dr. Madara said.
- Tangible results produced by the AMA’s strategic work have garnered national attention. “AMA experts are being called to participate in deep dives, ideation panels and other brainstorming events at TEDMED, Health 2.0, Aspen Ideas Festival, National Academy of Medicine and many other highly visible venues,” Dr. Madara said.
- STEPS Forward already provides 27 physician-authored modules that offer concrete steps to help physicians thrive in their practices. Topics range from work flow to physician health to payment support and health IT implementation. These new products provide ways to “revitalize our practice and improve patient care,” Dr. Madara added.
- “We’ve also extended the reach of our work with what I refer to as the AMA innovation ecosystem,” Dr. Madara said. “Chicago-based MATTER, an incubator/accelerator that now has more than 120 health care startups, is an AMA partner.” The goal at MATTER is to provide physicians with opportunities to get involved at the point of creation as new technologies are developed for health care.
“What’s important [to physicians] is time with our patients, tools that work, practices poised to thrive,” Dr. Madara said. “Things may have to change so these historic aspects of practice can be secured and continued.”
