Updates from the AMA House of Delegates: November 2020 special meeting
Public health
Bullying in the Practice of Medicine
Health-care organizations, including academic medical centers, should establish policies to prevent and address bullying in their workplaces. An effective workplace policy should:
• Describe the management’s commitment to providing a safe and healthy workplace.
• Show the staff that their leaders are concerned about bullying and unprofessional behavior and that they take it seriously.
• Clearly define workplace violence, harassment, and bullying, specifically including intimidation, threats, and other forms of aggressive behavior.
• Specify to whom the policy applies (ie, medical staff, students, administration, patients, employees, contractors, vendors, etc).
• Define both expected and prohibited behaviors.
• Outline steps for individuals to take when they feel they are a victim of workplace bullying.
• Provide contact information for a confidential means for documenting and reporting incidents.
• Prohibit retaliation and ensure privacy and confidentiality.
• Document training requirements and establish clear expectations about the training objectives.
Availability of personal protective equipment (PPE)
That our American Medical Association actively support that physicians and health-care professionals are empowered to use workplace modifications to continue professional patient care when they determine such action to be appropriate and in the best interest of patient and physician wellbeing. Physicians and health-care professionals must be permitted to use their professional judgment and augment institution-provided PPE with additional, appropriately decontaminated, personally provided personal protective equipment (PPE) without penalty (Directive to Take Action); and be it further that AMA affirm that the medical staff of each healt-care institution should integrally be involved in disaster planning, strategy, and tactical management of ongoing crises (New HOD Policy).
AMA governance and finance
The establishment of private practice physicians’ section was approved.
Medical practice
Merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS)
That our American Medical Association (AMA) support legislation that ensures Medicare physician payment is sufficient to safeguard beneficiary access to care, replaces or supplements budget neutrality in MIPS with incentive payments, or implements positive annual physician payment updates. (Directive to Take Action).
Establishing professional services claims-based payment enhancement for activities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic
American Medical Association work with other interested parties to advocate for regulatory action on the part of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to implement a professional services claims-based payment enhancement to help recognize the enhanced, nonseparately reimbursable work performed by physicians during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. (Directive to Take Action).
This is just a small sampling of the activities and more information, including reports from the various Councils, are available on the AMA website, https://ama-assn.org.
CHEST members interested in the AMA policy-making process may observe any AMA-HOD meeting or participate in the AMA’s democratic processes. Attendees will also be able to increase their knowledge and skills at no cost. They will also be able to connect with more than 1,500 peers and other meeting attendees from across the country. CHEST members with the time (there are two 5-day meetings each year) and interest are invited to apply to be an official CHEST delegate to the AMA. Contact Jennifer Nemkovich at jnemkovich@chestnet.org for details.
Dr. Desai is with the Chicago Chest Center and AMITA Health Suburban Lung Associates; and the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep and Allergy, University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also the CHEST Delegate to the AMA House of Delegates.
