Speaking to a crowd of physicians and medical students during the opening session of the 2014 AMA Annual Meeting Saturday, AMA President Ardis Dee Hoven, MD (pictured left), reminded the medical profession of its powerful mission: to create a better, healthier future for the people of this great nation.
“During the past year, the AMA has worked hard to achieve that mission,” Dr. Hoven said. “We’ve had many successes.”
Among the achievements she highlighted were winning medical liability reforms in several states, securing a one-year delay to Stage 2 of the electronic health record meaningful use program, expanding access to an overdose antidote that can prevent opioid-related deaths, securing funding for innovations in the delivery of specialty care and reaching milestones in the three focus areas of the AMA’s strategic plan.
One other success she praised was the AMA’s advocacy efforts in the fight to repeal the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula. Dr. Hoven also offered ways to continue the fight. While some people have viewed the temporary payment patch as a failure, the truth is that the effort united physicians throughout the House of Medicine and produced a bicameral, bipartisan legislative policy to replace SGR with a system that encourages innovation, she said.
“The AMA didn’t fail America’s physicians,” she said. “Congress failed America’s physicians and the patients of this country.”
But the fight continues, and there are ways to make progress on SGR repeal and other challenges confronting the health care system, she said. For instance, physicians need to hold politicians accountable.
“We need to use our votes,” she said. “We need to remind our elected officials that the nation’s physicians and the nation’s patients matter.”
Next, physicians need to educate.
“The more people who know about the AMA—who we are, what we are and what we’re fighting for—the stronger we will be,” she said. “When we educate people, we empower them. And when we empower them, we can make a difference.”
And lastly—and perhaps most importantly—physicians need to be leaders in their communities.
“We need to continue to put ourselves on the front lines, whether it’s caring for our patients, collaborating with community organizations or paying a visit to our local congressional representatives to advocate for reform,” Dr. Hoven said. “There are countless roles we can play back home as we work together to shape a better health care future.”
She shared a story of a patient diagnosed with HIV, who lost her husband to the disease. The patient later found love again, but her new husband’s family wouldn’t accept her illness, and the marriage fell apart. The patient didn’t succumb to depression—instead, she began speaking about the prevention and treatment of HIV, sharing her story with others and fighting HIV/AIDS as a prominent spokesperson.
That story can give physicians inspiration, Dr. Hoven said.
“A year ago I stood before you and said organized medicine stood at a crossroads,” she said. “One was the path of glorifying the past, lamenting the changing health care environment and thwarting any attempt to move forward. The other was a path of action—of collaborating, innovating and leading the drive toward productive change. I am happy to say the AMA took the second path.”
Also during the opening session, delegates elected by acclamation Steven J. Stack, MD, to the position of AMA president-elect. Dr. Stack, currently the immediate-past chair of the AMA Board of Trustees, is an emergency physician residing in Lexington, Kentucky.
Delegates re-elected Andrew W. Gurman, MD, a hand surgeon in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Susan R. Bailey, MD, an allergist in Fort Worth, Texas, as speaker and vice speaker, respectively.
View a video of Dr. Hoven's speech.
