The AMA is conducting a grassroots initiative to generate public support for Congressional passage of H.R. 1700 and S. 1042, the Medicare Patient Empowerment Act, introduced by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), respectively. This legislation, based on policy developed by the AMA House of Delegates, will create a new Medicare option to allow patients and physicians to enter into private contract arrangements without penalties for either party. Our focus is on securing House and Senate cosponsors for this important legislation, and we have asked for assistance from Federation groups and individual physicians.
When we announced the launch of this campaign in February, we noted that a patient brochure would be available for distribution in physician offices. The AMA is pleased to say that 129 pre-orders of the brochure are now being filled, and we have sufficient supplies to begin processing more orders immediately.
The brochures are available free of charge, in batches of 50, for physicians who order them through the mymedicare-mychoice.
The MyMedicare-MyChoice web site also features an on-line petition that physicians and patients can sign. So far, 198 physicians and 167 patients have signed the petition, with the largest number (30 percent of the total) coming from Georgia. Web stickers can be downloaded from the site and affixed to your own web site to help direct traffic to the petition—please visit mymedicare-mychoice.org and download your web stickers today.
On the AMA’s own website at http://www.ama-assn.org, a range of resource material to support this work is available, including:
- An educational slide deck, with script, for physician audiences that can be personalized by the presenter.
- A physician-focused Frequently Asked Questions document.
- An educational slide deck, with script, for patient audiences that can be personalized by the presenter.
- A patient-focused Frequently Asked Questions document.
- A short educational video for patients.
- A downloadable patient flyer for physician offices.
Some of this material can be co-branded with other Federation groups for distribution to physician members and patients. So far, medical societies in Georgia, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Ohio have received co-branded PDF files of these documents, as well as the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons/ Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Please contact kdb@georgiaacs.org if your group is interested in receiving co-branded electronic files of this material.
Finally, Rep. Price’s bill, H.R. 1700, now has 30 cosponsors. Florida’s Congressional delegation is best represented with 4 cosponsors; Tennessee and Texas have 3 cosponsors each; and states that have secured 2 cosponsors include Alabama, California, Georgia, Maryland, New York, and Ohio. States with one bill cosponsor include: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington.