capitol hill report: AAN INPUT HELPS SHAPE AMA POLICIES

June 20, 2022

Latest Advocacy News

Last week, a Senate committee joined the full House of Representatives in advancing policies to reform the Food & Drug Administration’s Accelerated Approval process―including limiting delays in post-marketing confirmatory study timelines and clarifying protocols for the withdrawal approval when post-marketing studies fail. The AAN recently sent a letter encouraging the enactment of these reforms and was included in a press release by the sponsors of these reforms.
Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX-26) and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX-15) introduced new legislation that would exempt qualifying providers from prior authorization requirements under Medicare Advantage for those who had at least 90 percent of prior authorization requests approved the preceding year. This legislation is modeled after a recently enacted Texas law.
The AAN recently joined nearly 80 organizations to call on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to reinstate the ban on Medicare Advantage Plans from placing step therapy protocols on Part B drugs. Read the letter.

Issue in Focus

Mark J. Milstein, MD, FAAN, Chair of the AAN’s AMA Delegation, testifies before the AMA HoD

Ann Murray, MD testifies before the AMA HoD

The American Medical Association House of Delegates (HoD), the policy-setting body of the AMA, meets in June and November to consider, debate, and vote on resolutions on a far-reaching range of health care issues. National state and specialty organizations each send delegates to the HoD to share their perspective and voice on these critical issues.

This year’s Annual Meeting took place from June 10–15 and was the first in-person meeting in over two years. The occasion marked AMA’s 175th anniversary. To start the meeting, outgoing President Gerald E. Harmon, MD, announced the AMA Recovery Plan for America’s Physicians, which focuses on five key goals to

rebuild health care: supporting telehealth to maintain coverage and payment; reforming Medicare payment to promote thriving physician practices and innovation; stopping scope creep that threatens patient safety; fixing prior authorization to reduce the burden on practices and minimize care delays for patients; and reducing physician burnout and address the stigma around mental health.
Key topics of this meeting spanned a wide range of issues, including:

Electing AAN member Joshua Marc Cohen, MD, MPH, to the HoD Council on Science and Public Health
Supporting reforms to the FDA’s Accelerated Approval process—which included specific changes proposed by the AAN’s delegation
Adopting policy cosponsored by the AAN aimed at reducing the burden of the Medicare Appropriate Use Criteria program
Adopting policy cosponsored by the AAN to promote and study the link between hearing and cognitive impairment
Debating changes to AMA policy on Medicare Drug Price Negotiation
Debating the best ways to address the burdens of prior authorization
Adopting policy declaring that voting is a social determinant of health
Adopting a resolution calling on all candidates for public office to refuse contributions from any organization that opposes public health measures to reduce firearm violence
Discussion of other significant issues (read summary)

The AAN’s delegation to this AMA HoD included: Mark J. Milstein, MD, FAAN (chair); Shannon M. Kilgore, MD, FAAN (vice chair); Ann Murray, MD; Barry M. Czeisler, MD, MS; Allan Ding Wu, MD, FAAN; and Eva K. Ritzl, MD, FAAN.

What We're Reading

Startup gets green light to use Apple Watch to track Parkinson's symptoms (STAT)
Buy and Bust: When Private Equity Comes for Rural Hospitals (KHN)
Is Long COVID Really a Mass Disabling Event? (The Atlantic)