This year will see hundreds of bills introduced in statehouses nationwide with aims to reshape—among other things—how physician well-being is protected, the physician-led care team is structured, prior authorization is regulated, and health AI is developed and deployed.
On these and other fronts, doctors have a powerful ally in the AMA. In a new report issued in conjunction with the 2026 AMA State Advocacy Summit that runs through Saturday, the AMA is detailing its effective work on behalf of physicians over the last 12 months and how that work will continue as state legislatures ramp up their activity in 2026.
“At the American Medical Association, we know the future of medicine is shaped in state capitols—not just in Washington, D.C. Every day, decisions at the state level impact how physicians care for patients and how our health care system works. That’s why strong state advocacy is at the heart of our mission to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health,” says a letter from AMA CEO and Executive Vice President John Whyte, MD, MPH, that introduces the “AMA State Advocacy Impact Report: 2025 Year in Review” (PDF).
“We succeed because of our partnerships with state and specialty societies across the country. Together, we protect the patient-physician relationship and keep physician voices front and center,” Dr. Whyte added. “The data in this report shows what collaboration can achieve. We have fought against unsafe scope expansions, improved prior authorization, held payers accountable and supported physician well-being. Every win—big and small—reflects our shared strength.”
Through its Advocacy Resource Center, the AMA works directly with national, state and specialty medical
societies to enact state laws and regulations that protect patients and support physicians—and fight back against those that do not.
The AMA Advocacy Resource Center’s expert attorneys help state policymakers understand complex health care issues and give medical societies targeted support. That includes help with legislative and regulatory drafting, testimony before legislative and regulatory committees, and meetings with legislators, regulators and national policymaking organizations. The Advocacy Resource Center’s experts also track thousands of bills, offer timely analysis on national legislative trends, and develop and distribute data-driven state advocacy campaign toolkits.
All of this is part of the AMA’s broader effort to fight for physicians on the most pivotal issues so that doctors can focus on what matters most—their patients. In 2025, that added up to 223 separate legislative and regulatory wins at the state level, across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Here are eight major areas where the AMA is fighting for doctors—and winning.
Scope of practice
This issue again tops the agenda for physician advocates in statehouses across the country, with 89% of respondents telling the AMA (PDF) this is one of their top five legislative priorities for 2026.
“The best care and the safest health care outcomes for patients depend on health care teams working together—with physicians in the lead,” the AMA’s report says. “Each year, the AMA Advocacy Resource Center works closely with state medical associations and national medical specialty societies to promote physician-led care and defeat legislative efforts that inappropriately expand the scope of practice of nonphysicians.”
The AMA is fighting scope creep, defending the practice of medicine against scope of practice expansions that threaten patient safety and undermine physician-led, team-based care. Last year, the AMA worked with more than 35 state medical associations and over 10 national specialty societies to defeat scope of practice legislation, and the AMA Scope of Practice Partnership provided 19 grants to help state advocacy efforts on this issue in 2025. The partnership has handed out $5 million in grants since its inception.
Julie Reed is executive vice president of the Indiana State Medical Association, which got one of those grants. “The AMA Scope of Practice Partnership grant enabled us to build the coalition, research and messaging needed to successfully defeat unsafe scope of practice expansions,” Reed says in the report, adding that the “AMA’s legal analysis, library of resources and dedicated support were invaluable.”
Scope of practice is on the agenda today at the State Advocacy Summit, which runs through Saturday at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. More than 300 physician leaders and medical society staff are attending the conference. Attendees will:
- Hear from national experts on the critical issues impacting medicine at the state level.
- Strategize with advocacy leaders on their organizations’ state legislative and regulatory priorities.
- Network with other physician leaders and colleagues from across the country.
Prior authorization
This payer cost-control tactic wastes patients and physicians’ time and delays care—sometimes with awful consequences. Indeed, 29% of physicians surveyed by the AMA have reported (PDF) that prior authorization has led to a serious adverse event for a patient in their care. That is why the AMA fights to fix prior authorization by challenging insurance companies to eliminate care delays, patient harms and practice hassles.
In 2025, 22 states passed legislation to reform prior authorization, enacting critical changes aimed at rightsizing this broken and overused process. And the AMA’s model state legislation “recently served as the foundation for a model bill adopted by the National Council of Insurance Legislators,” the report says, noting that was an outgrowth of “years of laying the groundwork.”
Meanwhile, another influential body representing state officials is taking notice of the rising number of successful prior authorization reform efforts that the AMA has helped bring to fruition. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has started working on a prior authorization white paper for state regulators. The AMA is urging the group “to go even further in supporting state enforcement efforts and developing resources for regulators,” says the report.
Physician well-being
Nearly 40% of the staffers from state medical associations and national specialty societies surveyed by the AMA said physician burnout and well-being will be a top state advocacy priority in 2026.
“Physicians, residents and medical students should be able to seek and receive care for mental health or substance use without fear of stigma and with full confidentiality protections,” says the AMA’s state impact report. “The AMA strongly urges all licensing boards, hospitals, health systems, liability carriers and credentialing bodies to remove from their applications inappropriate questions about mental health and treatment for a substance-use disorder that create unnecessary barriers to care.”
As the leader in physician well-being, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the Joy in Medicine®.
By September 2025, more than 40 medical boards and over 1,800 health systems, hospitals, medical centers, clinics and other facilities verified their licensing or credentialing applications are free from stigmatizing questions. That’s a big jump from 2022, when only 19 medical boards and a few dozen hospitals and health systems had reviewed their applications.
More than 2 million physicians and other licensed or credentialed health professionals can benefit from these reforms. “This success would not have been possible without the collaboration between the AMA, the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, the Federation of State Medical Boards, the Federation of State Physician Health Programs, the National Association of Medical Staff Services and all the organizations that helped to make these changes a reality,” the report says.
In a State Advocacy Summit session moderated by Corey Feist, president and co-founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation, expert panelists will explore multiple avenues for how state advocacy can remove legislative, regulatory and other barriers for medical students, residents and practicing physicians to seek care for mental health concerns or substance use without fearing for their job or license.
“The AMA has been an extraordinary partner in advancing our shared mission to protect the well-being of physicians and all health care professionals,” Feist says in the report.
Augmented intelligence (AI) in medicine
Health AI is “is reshaping the future of medicine, and state legislatures are responding rapidly to its promise and challenges,” notes the AMA report, and 64% of medical society staffers listed the issue as a top state advocacy priority for 2026.
From AI implementation to digital health adoption and EHR usability, the AMA is fighting to make technology work for physicians, ensuring that it is an asset to doctors. That includes recently launching the AMA Center for Digital Health and AI to give physicians a powerful voice in shaping how AI and other digital tools are harnessed to improve the patient and clinician experience.
“The new center will tap the full potential of AI and digital health by embedding physicians throughout the lifecycle of technology development and deployment to ensure digital tools integrate seamlessly into the clinical workflow and that physicians are equipped to use them effectively,” the AMA report says.
Ahead of the 2025 legislative session, the AMA published an issue brief on health AI state advocacy and policy priorities (PDF) covering health plans’ use of AI, transparency requirements for AI tools, physician liability issues and more. The new report shows that 14 states passed health AI legislation in 2025.
Access to care
“With states implementing the One Big Beautiful Big Act [OBBBA], the AMA Advocacy Resource Center is ensuring our partners and physicians have the support they need to navigate the change and mitigate harm to patients,” says the AMA report. Nearly three-quarters of medical society staffers surveyed by the AMA listed Medicaid as one of their top advocacy priorities for 2026.
The OBBBA includes significant funding cuts and policy changes to Medicaid and the Health Insurance Marketplaces, Medicare physician payment and medical student loans, among other health care related items, all of which will worsen patient access to care. Learn more with the AMA about changes to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and other key provisions of the OBBBA.
State implementation of the bill’s provision is the focus of two separate sessions today at the State Advocacy Summit, focusing on marketplaces and Medicaid, respectively.
In three other areas, the AMA helps physician advocates across the country:
- Improve access to lifesaving, evidence-based care for substance-use disorder—read the AMA’s new report (PDF).
- Address corporate influence in health care—read the AMA issue brief (PDF).
- Support state medical liability reforms—read the AMA’s latest report (PDF).
Among other offerings, the AMA State Advocacy Summit will conclude Saturday with a session that will offer practical solutions for states to help people with substance-use or mental-health disorders; and another session that will explore emerging state activity on corporate practice of medicine.
