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CHICAGO -- Gun violence, value-based contracting, and sexual harassment in medicine will be on the agenda as the American Medical Association (AMA) convenes its 167th annual House of Delegates meeting here this weekend.
Sexual harassment will be a special focus, with a session on Saturday morning explaining how doctors, medical students, and healthcare organizations can learn to recognize and mitigate harassment. Gun violence also will be in the spotlight, with a session on Monday morning about what physicians can do to prevent the problem. Speakers will include three emergency medicine physicians. Monday morning also features a panel on value-based contracting, including how to navigate cost and quality metrics as well as risk-based payments.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD, will be a special guest at the meeting. Adams will speak Monday afternoon at the beginning of the delegates’ first voting session.
The main business of the meeting, of course, is considering and voting on resolutions brought forward from delegates and from AMA governing bodies. One resolution from the AMA's Council on Medical Service suggests that the AMA should support expanding eligibility for the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) premium tax credits to people earning up to 500% of the federal poverty level, or $60,700 for an individual; the current upper limit is 400%, or $48,560.
Another resolution, from the American Academy of Pediatrics delegation, would have the AMA oppose efforts to arm teachers. On a related note, the New York State delegation has proposed a resolution supporting a ban on the sale of "bump stocks," which are devices designed to make semi-automatic weapons fire faster.
Disaster planning also will come to the fore at the meeting, as the Michigan delegation is asking the delegates to recommend that the AMA "study the impact of natural disasters on the pharmaceutical supply chain and downstream effects on patient care, as well as the adequacy of our governmental response to mitigating these recent natural disasters."
The Michigan resolution also calls on the association to "advocate that the [FDA] and/or Congress require drug manufacturers to establish a plan for continuity of supply of vital and life-sustaining medications and vaccines to avoid production shortages whenever possible. This plan should include establishing the necessary resiliency and redundancy in manufacturing capability to minimize disruptions of supplies in foreseeable circumstances including the possibility of a disaster affecting a plant."
Other resolutions being considered at the meeting include:
- A resolution supporting the end of money bail to decrease the burden on low-income communities (from the Medical Student Section)
- A resolution supporting placement of a warning label on wire-bristle grill brushes to inform people that the bristles can accidentally break off and be ingested (from the Michigan delegation)
- A resolution supporting the establishment of a Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer (LGBTQ) Health Specialty Section Council at the association (from the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association)
- A resolution urging that no one be denied medical licensure on the grounds of failure to use an electronic health record (from the Louisiana delegation)
- A resolution supporting adequate funding for the U.S. Census (from the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, and the American College of Physicians)
And no AMA meeting would be complete without pomp, circumstance, and elections. Barbara McAneny, MD, an oncologist from Albuquerque, N.M. will be installed Tuesday evening as the association's 173rd president; her installation ceremony will be followed by a formal dinner and dancing (black tie optional).
And with the presidency lasting only a year, elections will also be held to determine McAneny's successor. This year's race pits , an Atlanta psychiatrist, against , a critical care medicine physician from Toledo, Ohio. Members of the next AMA board of trustees also will be elected, as will the future Speaker and Vice-Speaker of the House of Delegates and members of the association's policy councils.
The meeting will adjourn on Wednesday.