AMA Responds to PA Group’s Policy Truce Letters

The president of the American Medical Association (AMA) responded to two previous letters from the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA), rebutting claims that the AMA is waging a campaign against PAs’ scope of practice.

“The AMA’s work on scope of practice is based on long-standing and extensive AMA policy and most often in direct response to legislative efforts,” wrote AMA President Bruce Scott, MD, in the letter to AAPA President Jason Prevelige, DMSc, MBA, PA-C, and CEO Lisa Gables.

“This includes bills based on model language offered by the AAPA, that we believe would dismantle the care team,” Scott added.

“We are proud of our efforts to defeat these bills and will continue to work tirelessly on behalf of our members and patients to preserve patient access to physician-led care, which survey after survey shows is what patients want,” he wrote, pointing to a recent survey AMA survey showing 95% of patients expect that a physician will be involved in their diagnosis and treatment.

Scott also noted that while the AMA believes PAs have an important role to play on the healthcare team, they do not have “the same skill set nor the breadth of experience of physicians, as is evident by the fact that physician assistants have a fraction of physicians’ education and training.”

“To claim otherwise is simply incorrect and even more critically, confusing to patients,” he added.

“This is why the AMA firmly believes that all patients, including patients in rural and underserved communities, deserve access to physician-led team-based care,” he concluded.

In a press release about the AMA’s response letter, AAPA said it remains committed “to advocating for the best interests of PAs, and most importantly the well-being of patients.”

Scott’s letter comes several weeks after the AAPA sent its second letter to the AMA requesting a policy truce between the two professional medical organizations. The first letter was sent on July 30.

Both letters, co-written by Prevelige and Gables, called on the AMA to “cease its divisive campaign against PAs and other healthcare providers and engage in constructive dialogue about how to strengthen our healthcare workforce, promote health equity, and address the evolving needs of our patients.”

In the first letter, Prevelige and Gables detailed the AMA’s repeated obstruction in recent years of legislative measures that would allow PAs to have broader clinical practice rights, including preventing the passage of roughly 100 bills in 2023.

The second letter highlighted further reasons for why the two organizations should work together, including the results of an AAPA member survey on the impact of “the AMA’s ‘scope creep’ campaign.”

Prevelige and Gables noted that nearly 5,000 PAs responded to the survey. Of those, 96% agreed that the AMA’s campaign “had a negative impact on addressing healthcare workforce shortages,” and 95.2% agreed that “it has negatively impacted efforts to expand access to care for patients.”

In addition to the survey and two letters, thousands of PAs also signed an open letter to the AMA in support of the AAPA position.

The AMA and AAPA did not return requests for comment from MedPage Today as of press time.

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