News in brief - Dec. 27, 2004

AMA to voice concerns to DEA over pain medication prescribing policy - Delegates back AMA's work on Medicare drug benefit - AMA supports asthma drugs in schools - AMA board to study uncompensated care proposal

AMA to voice concerns to DEA over pain medication prescribing policy

The American Medical Association will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration to address physician concerns that an interim policy statement published by the agency in November could interfere with the way doctors prescribe opioid analgesic medications to some patients.

Doctors worry that the statement could make it illegal to write multiple pain medication prescriptions for a patient on the day of a visit and evaluation. Physicians also worry that they no longer could legally write directions for dispensing additional medication on future, specified dates.

At the AMA's Interim Meeting in Atlanta this month, delegates called on the Association to support interpreting federal law in a way that would let doctors continue to write pain medication prescriptions for patients in need, while letting the government provide oversight and regulation to minimize risks to patients' health and safety.

Delegates back AMA's work on Medicare drug benefit

The American Medical Association House of Delegates gave a show of support for the efforts by the Association to lobby for a Medicare drug benefit that best serves the nation's patients.

Delegates approved a resolution at the recent Interim Meeting in Atlanta that calls on the AMA to continue pushing the Association's "Principles of a Sound Drug Formulary System" in communications with federal officials. Physicians are concerned that overly restrictive formularies will hinder some seniors' access to needed drugs.

As of press time, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention had submitted model formulary guidelines to Medicare officials, who planned to release them publicly after a final review.

AMA supports asthma drugs in schools

Nineteen states have not passed legislation letting asthmatic children carry their own inhalers in school, and the American Medical Association is trying to get them to do so.

The need for children to be able to self-medicate for asthma received a recent boost from President Bush's signing of the Asthmatic Schoolchildren's Treatment and Health Management Act of 2004. Individual states nevertheless must complete the process by approving their own laws, the House of Delegates said.

State medical societies could be helpful in getting legislatures to act on the issue, several delegates said.

AMA board to study uncompensated care proposal

The American Medical Association's Board of Trustees will review whether more legislation or regulation is needed to help physician specialties offset the cost of uncompensated care.

AMA's House of Delegates referred an resolution on uncompensated care to the board during the group's Interim Meeting. The measure would have instructed the Association to work with specialty groups to determine how emergency departments, trauma centers and other centers of care could benefit from new federal payment policies.

If the trustees accept the need for such changes, the AMA may request that specialty organizations help foot the bill for collecting the compensation data necessary to make their case.