June 28, 2007
CHICAGO – The American Medical Association (AMA) passed new policy this week on pay-for-performance programs, pledging a commitment to the welfare of
patients, the health of the nation and the primacy of the patient-physician relationship.
"Physicians remain staunchly committed to improving the quality of health care, and the AMA is deeply involved in creating physician quality measures to benefit patients," said AMA Board Member J. James Rohack, MD.
The AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (Consortium) was founded in 2000 to create evidence-based measures that will help physicians improve the quality of care they provide. To date, 184 measures have been created through this collaborative process on a wide array of medical conditions.
"As doctors work to improve quality, it is critical that pay-for-performance programs also have quality improvement as their primary goal," said Dr. Rohack. "Today's action serves notice that those pay-for-performance programs whose only goal is to save money for health plans will not be tolerated," said AMA Board Member J. James Rohack, MD.
Existing AMA principles for pay-for-performance clearly state that all programs should ensure quality of care, foster the patient-physician relationship, offer voluntary physician participation, use accurate data and fair reporting, and provide fair and equitable program incentives.
"This vote intensifies the AMA's commitment to oppose pay-for-performance programs that do not meet the AMA principles for fair and ethical programs that put patients first," said Dr. Rohack.
New AMA policy also calls on the AMA to continue to collaborate with interested parties to develop quality initiatives that exclusively benefit patients and protect patient access. The AMA policy also strongly opposes the use of tiered and narrow physician networks that attempt to steer patients to or away from certain physicians primarily based on cost.
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For more information, please contact:
Katherine M. Hatwell
Senior Public Information Officer
AMA Media Relations
(202) 789-7419
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