“There is a lot of pain, a lot of concern and angst” around AMA support of the controversial legislation, said Doris K. Cope, MD, an anesthesiologist from Pittsburgh and a new AMA alternate delegate.
The Maryland delegation asked the AMA to justify its support of the bill. “We just want to see a more concrete idea of what [was] involved,” said Joseph Snyder, MD, an ophthalmologist from Silver Spring, Md. “We just want to see some better communication.”
John Ostuni, MD, an endocrinologist from Freeport, N.Y., attributed a recent 5-7 percent drop in AMA membership to the organization’s stance on the reform bill. “To not look into that is not acceptable,” he said.
Outgoing AMA President J. James Rohack, MD, defended the AMA’s position, noting a permanent physician fee fix was supposed to be part of the reform bill.
In a report on current membership, AMA officials said two states lost more than 20 percent of their AMA members over the past year and 26 states saw declines of 3.6-9.9 percent, according to a separate report in MedPage Today, which did not name the states.
Rebecca Patchin, MD, an anesthesiologist in Loma Linda, Calif., and chair of the AMA Board, said the board “feels that 215,000 members is a conservative estimate” of where AMA membership will stand when it is measured in August.
However, several AMA observers said the true number of AMA members who practice and pay full dues is closer to 100,000 than to 200,000. The organization’s membership count includes medical students, paying $20 a year, and residents, paying $45 a year, compared with full dues of $420 a year. Physicians new to practice, military doctors, semi-retired and retired physicians also pay discounted rates.
Read the MedPage Today report on AMA membership.
Read the MedPage Today report on healthcare reform.
Read more stories about the AMA.
What Healthcare Trade Group Leaders Delivered for Members
As AMA Embraced Health Reform, Membership Fell 3.5% in 2009
