Update from AMA Annual Meeting 2019

The American Medical Association (AMA) conducted the Annual Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates from June 8-12 in Chicago. The House of Delegates (HOD) is the principal policymaking body of the AMA, consisting of more than 600 delegates and accompanying alternate delegates who represent the medical specialty societies (including CHEST); the state and territorial medical associations; the uniformed services; and other stakeholder organizations. Leading policymakers including Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma and the Surgeon General of the United States, Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams, MD, also participated in the meeting.

This year, the delegates (CHEST has three delegate positions) considered more than 200 policy proposals (resolutions and reports) in a multi-step process: caucuses, Reference Committees, and hearings before the full House of Delegates.

The caucuses are an important first step in the HOD process. The Chest/Allergy Section Council (participants at this meeting were from the AAAAI, AAOA, AASM, ACAAI, ATS, CHEST, and SCCM) met the day before the Reference Committee hearings to:

• Decide what resolutions and reports are most important to the chest diseases, critical care medicine, sleep medicine, and allergy communities;
• Determine (if possible) a unified position (support/oppose);
• Develop talking points; and
• Identify who will speak for the caucus (or as individuals if there were differing positions) at the various Reference Committee meetings.

Under the leadership of Tina Shah, MD, MPH, from the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the caucus decided to focus on 16 reports and resolutions that were slated for discussion at 7 different Reference Committees. The caucus used the GroupMe mobile, a group messaging app, to stay in touch during the meeting to ensure that someone from the caucus would be at all pertinent sessions and to communicate progress and results in real time.

The topics of the reports and resolutions selected by the Caucus for involvement included:

• Returning Liquid Oxygen to the Medicare Fee Schedule
• COPD National Action Plan
• Low Nicotine Product Standard
• Addressing the Vaping Crisis
• Regulating Liquid Nicotine and E-Cigarettes
• Put Over-the-Counter Inhaled Epinephrine Behind Pharmacy Counter
• Change in Marijuana Classification to Allow Research
• Promotion of Early Recognition and Treatment of Sepsis by Out-of-Hospital Healthcare Providers
• The Climate Change Lecture for US Medical Schools
• Physician-Assisted Suicide
• End-of-Life Care