“It is important to have as many avenues to advocate as possible,” says ACR Government Affairs Committee Chair Will Harvey, MD, MSc, “and the AMA is a good one. More importantly, I think many of us have felt that the AMA has been more and more responsive to issues of concern to us. This year, we are in danger of losing an AMA slot because not enough of our members are also AMA members. I strongly urge you to renew [your membership in] or join the AMA this year. Things are going to get worse before they get better, and we need to keep pushing AMA policy in the right direction. Regardless of how you’ve felt about [the AMA] in the past, now is the time to get off the fence and join.”
We need your help now to keep rheumatology’s seat at the table. You can help by renewing your membership in or joining the AMA. We also need ACR members to specify the ACR as your specialty organization by “voting” for the ACR, which confirms for the AMA that you want to be counted toward rheumatology’s seat at the table.
In addition, make sure you are a member of your state medical society and work to bring the rheumatologist’s perspective of the PA reform process to your state as well.
Ryan Larosa is senior manager of state affairs at the ACR.
References
- Casalino L, Nicholson S, Gans D, et al. What does it cost physician practices to interact with health insurance plans? Health Affairs. 2009 July–Aug;28(4):533–543.
- Morley C, Badolato D, Hickner J, et al. The impact of prior authorization requirements on primary care physicians’ offices: Report of two parallel network studies. J Am Board Fam Med. 2013 Jan–Feb;26(1):93–95.
- Morra D, Nicholson S, Levinson W, et al. US physician practices versus Canadians: Spending nearly four times as much money interacting with payers. Health Aff (Millwood). 2011 Aug;30(8):1443–1450.
