Third quarter lobbying reports released by Congress show that a number of healthcare groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians, are trying to ax part of a defense authorization bill that would expand the use of telemedicine services in the U.S. military.
Section 705(d) of the National Defense Authorization Act would require the availability of virtual visits in TRICARE. And since it bases reimbursement and liability not on the patient but the location of the provider, it would essentially create a national medical license.
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Last month, the AMA write a letter to Congress asking it to remove the language in the bill related to the location of care. Generally, the AMA has supported telemedicine, a position it reaffirmed in the same letter.
In the third quarter of the current fiscal year, the AMA spent $3.87 million lobbying for that issue and others, including the Veterans' Mental Health Care Access Act, the Restoring Access to Medication Act of 2015 and the Gun Violence Research Act. Earlier this year the AMA released a series of letters calling gun violence in the U.S. a "national health emergency."
[Also: Guns a 'public health crisis,' AMA says, asks Congress to end ban on research]
The American Hospital Association also spent millions on lobbying during the quarter -- $4.05 million, to be exact -- advocating for a number of causes including a bill that would remove the 96-hour physician certification requirement as a condition of payment for critical access hospitals. The AHA also urged that attention be paid to the anti-competitive effects of the Anthem/Cigna merger, a position shared by the AMA. A number of groups have come out against the proposed merger.
In addition to the telemedicine provision of the defense bill, the AAFP's $1.46 million worth of lobbying cash went toward advocating for emergency response funding for the Zika virus, fixing problems with rural graduate medical education, and allowing patients with health savings accounts access to direct primary care.
Twitter: @JELagasse