PA Group Sends Second Letter Asking AMA for Policy Truce

The American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) sent a second letter to the president of the American Medical Association (AMA) this week, requesting that the two organizations meet to discuss the impact of the AMA’s “disparaging rhetoric” against physician assistants (PAs).

“AAPA stands firm in our intention to collaborate with the AMA on a better path forward. While our two organizations may not see eye to eye on every policy, we trust that there are areas of common ground,” wrote AAPA President Jason Prevelige, DMSc, MBA, PA-C, and CEO Lisa Gables in the letter to AMA President Bruce Scott, MD.

“However, the continued silence from the AMA raises concerns about your commitment to collaboration and finding solutions to strengthen America’s healthcare workforce and improve patient care,” they added, asking Scott to help them bring their organizations together to focus on addressing the broader needs within the healthcare community.

The AMA did not return a MedPage Today request for comment as of press time.

This is the second letter that AAPA leadership sent to the AMA president in the past month.

The first letter called for an end to the AMA’s opposition to legislative measures and public policies that would allow PAs to have broader clinical practice rights. It noted that the AMA has repeatedly obstructed those legislative efforts for years, including preventing the passage of roughly 100 bills in 2023.

In their second letter, Prevelige and Gables provided additional information to support their efforts to bring the two organizations together, noting that their group had sent its members a survey “to gauge their perspectives on the impact of the AMA’s ‘scope creep’ campaign.”

Of the nearly 5,000 PAs who responded to the survey, 96% said they thought the AMA’s campaign “had a negative impact on addressing healthcare workforce shortages,” and 95.2% said they “believe it has negatively impacted efforts to expand access to care for patients.”

The survey also showed that 81% of respondents thought the AMA’s campaign “had a negative or very negative effect on their ability to provide care.”

“It is clear from these findings that the AMA’s intentional use of misleading information about PAs’ ability to provide safe, high-quality care has serious consequences for our healthcare system and patients,” Prevelige and Gables wrote in the letter.

In addition to the survey findings, Prevelige and Gables shared a letter signed by more than 8,000 PAs expressing their “urgent concerns about the AMA’s approach,” adding that the AMA’s campaign “misrepresents the contributions of the nation’s 178,000 PAs and does not reflect the views of many physicians.”

They called for Scott to meet with them before the upcoming legislative year so the two sides could “come together with agreed-upon solutions to lawmakers.”

“Our patients deserve better, and we are committed to ensuring that their care and confidence in our healthcare system are not compromised by misinformation and outdated care delivery models,” they wrote.

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