A congressman and physician who has worked to permanently repeal and replace the flawed Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula by introducing a bill to repeal it was one of seven recipients of the AMA’s top government service honor in health care.
Rep. Michael Burgess, MD, R-Texas, serves on the Committee on Energy and Commerce which, along with the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee, introduced a bipartisan bill last year that would protect patients, reward quality and incentivize models of care. He also has supported public health through efforts to protect the safety of food, drugs and consumer products, and strengthening the ability to stop dangerous products from coming into the country. Rep. Burgess has served as a member of Congress for more than a decade, prior to which he was a practicing ob-gyn in North Texas for nearly 30 years.
Rep. Burgess received one of the Dr. Nathan Davis Awards for Outstanding Government Service, presented Tuesday during the AMA National Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C. The award, named for the founder of the AMA, recognizes elected and career officials in federal, state or municipal service whose outstanding contributions have promoted the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.
Other award winners include:
- State Senator Irene Aguilar, MD, a primary care physician and member of the Colorado Senate, under whose leadership the state enacted its first body of law to standardize prior authorization of medications and passed legislation to fund the work of the Colorado Clean Claims Taskforce
- Rep. Timothy N. Brown, MD, an emergency medicine physician whose efforts to address physician shortages across rural Indiana led to the establishment of the state’s Primary care Shortage Area Scholarship
- Mike Beebe, former governor of Arkansas, selected for his leadership in expanding health care coverage to the uninsured population in Arkansas
- Joseph W. Thompson, MD, former surgeon general of Arkansas, a pediatrician who helped expand health insurance coverage in Arkansas, and halt an escalating childhood obesity crisis in the state.
- Bruce G. Gellin, MD, deputy assistant secretary for health and director of the National Vaccine Program Office, who led the nation’s vaccine and immunization initiatives and developed the agency’s first influenza preparedness plan
- Dale P. Sandler, PhD, principal investigator and chief of epidemiology for the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, selected for her contributions to the study of disease, including the relationship between chronic renal disease and analgesic use, smoking and leukemia, and pesticides and asthma
For the past 26 years, the AMA has honored more than 200 men and women with the Nathan Davis Award.
"The AMA’s Nathan Davis Awards recognize government officials who go above and beyond the call of duty to support our nation’s health,” said AMA Chair Barbara L. McAneny, MD. “Award winners have come from every branch of government service and are a testament to the important role that policymakers play in improving the health of our nation.”
