ACOG Members Continue to Lead at the AMA House of Delegates Interim Meeting

This week, physicians from across the United States convened at the AMA House of Delegates Interim Meeting to determine AMA policy on the most pressing issues affecting physicians and patients. ACOG’s 14-member delegation, led by delegation co-chairs Nita Kulkarni, MD, FACOG, and Kasandra Scales, MD, MPH, FACOG, and Vice Chair G. Sealy Massingill, MD, FACOG, continued to serve as a powerful and respected voice at the AMA, providing valuable perspectives of obstetrician–gynecologists and their patients.

Throughout the meeting, ACOG’s delegation, together with delegates from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, continued to serve as the authority on policies affecting all those seeking obstetric and gynecologic care. ACOG’s presence was also strengthened by the many obstetrician–gynecologists who participate in the AMA House of Delegates with their state society.

ACOG delegation members shared powerful testimonies that propelled a number of accomplishments at the Interim Meeting, including new AMA policies that …

• Oppose payer-initiated downcoding policies and require coordinated advocacy efforts across the house of medicine
• Modernize AMA ethics policies regarding the ethical impetus for research in pregnant and lactating individuals
• Call on the AMA to study and propose recommendations to address gender-based disparities in physician pay
• Encourage residency and fellowship programs to implement mechanisms to promote equitable procedural and surgical case allocation
• Continue to support federal student loan programs that accurately reflect the cost of graduate medical education programs
• Support that low-cost medications and procedures should not require prior authorization
• Support the establishment of national standards for immunization payment rates that ensure physicians are paid at the full cost of vaccine procurement and administration
• Oppose efforts to limit access to evidence-based fertility care, including IVF, amid restorative reproductive medicine legislation
• Support policies protecting reproductive health information
• Support doula services that enhance patient care and protect patient safety
• Elevate Medicaid to an urgent and top AMA legislative advocacy priority, including support of a clear, mandatory exemption from Medicaid work requirements for all postpartum individuals for 12 months postpartum
• Support paid leave for routine prenatal care for physician employees
• Support the independence of scientific research and the integrity of peer-reviewed medical journals

The size and strength of ACOG’s delegation in the AMA House of Delegates, which meets twice annually, is determined by the number of ACOG members who are also members of the AMA. Help us strengthen our presence even more: Join the AMA today and designate your specialty as obstetrics and gynecology.

In addition, ACOG member engagement with organized medicine, including membership in your state medical societies, is an increasingly important means of advancing ACOG policies and priorities in your states, and it shapes the policymaking process that happens in the AMA House of Delegates. ACOG encourages you to join your state medical society to ensure that your society hears the valuable perspective of ob-gyns.