AMA and AAO-HNS: Partners in Advocating for Our Profession
By working closely with the AAO-HNS on a range of issues of concern to otolaryngologists, the AMA acts as a force multiplier to effect change that improves our ability to give our patients the quality care they deserve.
Bruce A. Scott, MD, President, American Medical Association
Bruce A. Scott, MD
As I explained in my inaugural address last year, I truly believe the AMA makes a difference in the lives of our patients, our fellow physicians, and our profession. And we are most effective when we stand together and speak with a unified voice on the issues that are crippling our healthcare system. As a practicing otolaryngologist in a small, private practice, I live the challenges physicians face every day —from financial stress resulting from decades of shrinking Medicare reimbursement to the growing list of administrative burdens thrust upon us. These and other obstacles impeding patient care and driving physician burnout are the pressing issues that demand our attention right now. Together, we can fix it, as I outlined last fall at the AMA Interim Meeting. This is the moment when physicians must unite as a profession and speak with one voice—the AMA is that voice.
Otolaryngologists are fortunate to have a strong and well-organized professional association looking out for our interests, and the AAO-HNS continues to advance our specialty through advocacy, continuing medical education, research, public education and other means. At the same time, the AMA remains the nation’s largest and most influential organization representing all physicians and our patients. The AMA is our powerful ally, making membership for my fellow otolaryngologists particularly valuable.
By working closely with the AAO-HNS on a broad range of issues of concern to otolaryngologists, the AMA acts as a force multiplier in helping effect changes that improve our ability to give our patients the quality care they deserve. Together, we achieve results that might not have been possible had our Academy been acting alone on issues like modifier 25 and office-based allergy serum production, for example.
The highly effective partnership our organizations have forged will continue to benefit our practices and our patients going forward. We have an unprecedented opportunity as we enter 2025, with two practicing otolaryngologists, me and Bobby Mukkamala, MD, serving as president and president-elect of the AMA. Your concerns are our concerns. The issues you face are the same issues we struggle with in our practices.
Areas of Emphasis
The AMA is addressing the issues that matter most to physicians so that we can focus our attention on the reason we entered this profession: taking care of patients. Our priorities include reforming the Medicare physician payment system, fixing prior authorization, promoting physician-led care, reducing burnout, and ensuring that healthcare technology functions as an asset, not a burden.
Medicare physician payment reform has risen to the top of AMA’s advocacy priorities because we understand just how much is at stake. Adjusted for inflation, Medicare physician reimbursement has plummeted by over 30% since 2001. This unsustainable situation directly threatens care provided to all patients, not solely Medicare patients, as most private payers tie their contracts to the downward spiraling Medicare payment rates. The net effect is to push physician practices to the brink of financial ruin.
I share your frustration that we have not been able to fix this flawed formula, but I am optimistic about meaningful reform in 2025. Over the past year, AMA efforts, combined with those of the AAO-HNS and all of organized medicine, have made clear the impending impact on patient care. Now members of Congress are taking notice, and our push for enacting an annual inflationary Medicare payment update tied to the Medicare Economic Index enjoys growing support on Capitol Hill. We need all our physician colleagues to add their voices to our Fix Medicare Now grassroots campaign, which calls for specific reform measures to create a rational Medicare payment system to safeguard patient access to high-quality care.
Fixing Prior Authorization
I am similarly encouraged by growing bipartisan support in both the U.S. House and Senate to finally fix the onerous prior authorization process that endangers patients, wastes resources and undermines the expertise of physicians. The burden placed on otolaryngologists is particularly severe because as specialists we order advanced imaging, perform complex procedures and prescribe medications that are increasingly subject to prior authorization.
Relentless advocacy on this issue by the AMA and our partners in the Federation of Medicine is generating real results. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released final regulations in 2024 making important reforms in government-sponsored plans to reduce care delays and streamline the prior authorization process. Now federal legislation to empower CMS to institute further reforms is pending and enjoys bipartisan support. Meanwhile, more than a dozen states enacted laws last year to reform prior authorization.
Progress on Other Priorities
The AMA continues to work closely with specialty societies and state medical associations to oppose inappropriate scope of practice expansions. AMA has joined AAO-HNS in the fight to prevent scope of practice expansion for audiologists in several states. The AMA’s Scope of Practice Partnership initiative played a key role in defeating state-level legislation that would have allowed optometrists to perform surgery or let pharmacists independently diagnose patients and prescribe medications, to cite just two examples.
Reducing physician burnout remains a priority for the AMA. Although the overall physician burnout figure is lower than it was during the height of the pandemic, much work remains to correct the underlying problems in our healthcare system that drive burnout. Meanwhile, we are working to improve the availability of behavioral healthcare for physicians experiencing burnout and to reduce the stigma associated with seeking help. We have been successful in getting onerous questions about past mental health conditions removed from many licensure and credentialing forms.
Similarly, we are working to promote the appropriate development and deployment of augmented intelligence in healthcare, and to ensure that physicians’ interests are fully integrated into the creation and refinement of medical technology. Advances in digital medicine should facilitate efficient delivery of quality care by physicians, not become another burden to clinical practice.
AMA advocacy extends well beyond the issues I have touched on here. We are also pursuing practical solutions to the physician workforce crisis, advancing bold innovations in medical school and residency programs, improving maternal health outcomes, and promoting access to care for all, to name just a few more of our advocacy initiatives.
Join Us
Our work together is vitally important, particularly when you consider that other entities in healthcare do not have our best interests at heart. The insurance companies are not going to fight for us or our patients, nor will the pharmaceutical firms or the hospital lobby or the private equity investors—but the AMA and AAO-HNS always have and will continue to do so.
Please join our fight for physicians everywhere by visiting ama-assn.org and supporting our mission to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.
