Academy plays active role at AMA interim meeting
AAFP seeks coverage of people with diseases since childhood and requests reconsideration of ethical stance
Here are highlights from the Dec. 6-9 interim meeting of the AMA House of Delegates in Honolulu:
The AAFP joined 16 other medical societies in asking the AMA to work for affordable health insurance coverage for adults with congenital illnesses and/or diseases they've had from childhood. Coverage for this group, while an incremental change, is wholly consistent with AAFP's strategy for universal access. The resolution was referred to the AMA Board of Trustees.
The AAFP asked AMA to reconsider its stance allowing use of data from unethical, egregious experiments if no other data exist and human lives would otherwise be lost. The house had received for information the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs opinion on such data, which was based on CEJA recommendations approved by the house last June.
At AAFP's request, the opinion was referred to a reference committee at the interim meeting, and AAFP Board Chair Neil Brooks, M.D., of Rockville, Conn., spoke about the Academy's concern. He testified that last September, the AAFP Congress of Delegates voted for the first time to have AAFP differ from AMA on a principle of medical ethics. The Congress voted to not support the use of data from unethical experiments and directed AAFP to ask CEJA to reconsider its stance.
"We believe the basis of our interaction with our patients is our ethical stance," Brooks testified, "and anything that could be interpreted as saying we would condone unethical actions would erode that stance."
The reference committee recommended that CEJA reconsider its opinion, but the house disagreed. The opinion will appear in the next revision of the AMA's Code of Medical Ethics.
- The AMA house also adopted 38 amended recommendations that aim to help AMA overcome serious flaws in its structure, governance and operations. The original recommendations came from a committee the house created in response to the AMA's 1997 Sunbeam crisis. The committee was assisted by an outside management consulting firm. The committee report noted "a disturbing element of distrust" among the house of delegates, councils, board of trustees and staff.
- AMA should "express outrage that the practice of medicine is characterized as abusive and fraudulent and vigorously oppose the harassment of honest physicians," says a substitute resolution delegates adopted on Medicare evaluation and management documentation guidelines. The resolution also asks AMA to continue advancing alternatives to numerical guidelines.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1999 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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