American Medical Assn. endorses healthcare bill

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The American Medical Assn. on Friday announced its support for the healthcare bill, despite some elements of and omissions from the legislation that have unsettled the doctors group.

“The pending bill is imperfect, but we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” the AMA’s president, Dr. James Rohack, said in a conference call with reporters. “Key to our deliberations on this legislation was the fundamental fact that the status quo is simply not acceptable.”

Rohack called the pending congressional action on healthcare, “an opportunity that we are not likely to see again for at least a decade,” and said that under the bill, “the patient-physician relationship is protected.”

Rohack said the AMA was pleased that the bill would extend coverage to millions of Americans, provide investment for quality and wellness, and reduce administrative burdens.

The AMA isn’t so pleased with the creation of an independent payment board that would have jurisdiction over Medicare spending. Rohack said the board “could result in misguided payment cuts.”

The association is also pressuring Congress to pass a separate bill to repeal the formula that has caused a looming 21% cut in Medicare payments to doctors. In an earlier version of healthcare legislation, the House included a provision to address this issue – nicknamed the ‘doc fix’ – but it isn’t in the final bill. (It carried a price tag of nearly $250 billion.)

“We will hold Congress’ feet to the fire on getting that done before this Congress adjourns,” Rohack said.

-- Kim Geiger