AMA Membership for Primary Care Physicians Better to Join and Change from within

[MedicineDoc]

or to opt out? I joined the AMA out of medical school but am now wondering if I made a mistake in light of the lack of representation provided to primary care physicians. This article in the Wall Street Journal health care blog by Brian Klepper a PhD Health Care analyst working on national reform issues relates that the AMA secret advisory committe known as the RVS Update committee has been heavily dominated by specialists and served to heavily influence the CMS or centers for medicare and medicaid services to implement reimbursement patterns extremely favorably to specialist at the expense of undermining primary care physicians.

http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2007/12/bad-medicine-ho.html

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[MOHS_01]

MD,

I understand your frustration. I joined the AMA during residency and continued it through the first couple of years of practice, only to drop it a year or two ago because of similar concerns (the AMA RUC offered MOHS up as a sacrificial lamb to CMS due to the increasing prevalence of skin cancer and overutilization of the technique).

Unfortunately, it is not a matter of "primary care" vs "specialists"; rather, it is more "cognitive" vs "procedural" services.

Primary care is entering a period of rapid change in its delivery. Encroachment by mid-level providers, inflationary pressures, sicker (and needier) patients, and flat or declining reimbursements from insurers are eroding the ability to profit in private practice. More and more PCP's will continue to be forced into practice models that they either love or hate, depending upon the choices that they make and the carrying capacity of the community that they choose to practice in.