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AMA 2024: 2024 American Medical Association Annual House of Delegates Meeting Primer

(UroToday.com) Since the inception of UroToday’s Health Policy Center of Excellence, our mission has been to spotlight critical health policy issues that resonate with the broader urology community. Physicians primarily use organized medicine to advocate for policy reforms impacting healthcare. Despite physicians' varied and often critical perspectives regarding the American Medical Association (AMA), it remains the most significant and powerful organization in this sphere. The AMA consistently tackles crucial matters affecting the medical field, including public health, professional practice boundaries, diversity, equity and inclusion, and legislative advocacy.

The advocacy and legislative goals of the organization are formulated through a democratic procedure within the House of Delegates, which serves as the AMA's policy-making entity. Any member of the AMA has the ability to propose a "resolution" to be accepted as AMA policy, thereby influencing the organization's perspectives and actions on a range of issues. Both the American Urological Association (AUA) and the American Association of Clinical Urologists (AACU) have representation within the House of Delegates. This body, which assembles twice annually, is scheduled to meet in Chicago this week. The Health Policy Center of Excellence will again provide the UroToday audience with important coverage from this meeting.

This year, topics of interest to the urologic community include private equity’s continued expansion into healthcare, insurance coverage of infertility care, prior authorization, prescription medication pricing negotiation, reducing financial barriers to prostate cancer screening, and decreasing barriers to testosterone therapy access. Proposed policy regarding these important issues will be discussed, debated, revised, and potentially adopted. Please follow along with our meeting coverage to stay up to date on important policy developments throughout the AMA meeting!

Written by: Ruchika Talwar, MD, Urologic Oncology Fellow, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, @RuchikaTalwarMD during the 2024 AMA Annual Meeting, June 7 to June 12