Parity Law to be Focus of AMA Education Effort

In other house business of interest to psychiatrists, delegates approved a report by the AMA's Council on Medical Services outlining problems associated with physician payment under the military's TRICARE health care system and with recruitment of clinicians—especially mental health professionals.

After testimony from psychiatrists and other physicians about the importance of recruiting mental health clinicians, delegates approved the report with a resolution calling on the AMA to “encourage the TRICARE Management Activity and its contractors to continue and strengthen their efforts to recruit and retain mental health and addiction service providers in TRICARE networks, which should include providing adequate reimbursement for mental health and addiction services.”

Also approved was a recommendation that the AMA “strongly urge the TRICARE Management Activity to implement significant increases in physician payment rates to ensure all TRICARE beneficiaries, including service members and their families, have adequate access to and choice of physicians.”

APA President Nada Stotland, M.D., testified during reference committee hearings in support of the measure. “Service in the military has resulted in a devastating epidemic of mental illnesses, causing disability and pain to members and veterans of the armed services and their families. All too often these illnesses, when untreated, end tragically, in suicide.

“The American Psychiatric Association has conducted a membership survey,” Stotland said. “Psychiatrists report payment obstacles and low reimbursement so severe that they either cannot participate or regard participation as charity care.”

Stotland also informed the house that the American Psychiatric Foundation has supported the development of a program called Give an Hour, encouraging members to volunteer time to treating veterans. “Thousands of mental health professionals are donating an hour of direct service, consultation, or education each week,” she said (see More Professionals See Value of Volunteering to Help Vets).

She provided delegates written information about Give an Hour and urged physicians to visit the program's Web site at<www.giveanhour.org>.

McIntyre, who serves on the AMA Council on Medical Services, noted that the council had met with Maj. Gen. Elder Granger, M.C., a physician and deputy director and program executive office of TRICARE. He said that Granger was very welcoming of input from physicians about the matter of physician payment and manpower shortage areas and had vowed to continue being in contact with the council.

APA representatives were also involved in shaping measures by the house to address misinformation about childhood vaccines and their alleged but unproven-causal relationship with autism.

The house passed a resolution calling on the AMA to draft model legislation that states can pursue to enact more stringent requirements for parents and legal guardians to obtain personal-belief exemptions from state immunization requirements, develop educational materials that can be distributed to patients and their families articulating the benefits of immunizations and highlighting the exemplary safety record of vaccines, and communicate and work with other concerned organizations about effective ways to continue to support immunizations while rejecting claims that have no foundation in science.

The addition of a recommendation that the AMA develop educational materials was prompted by reference committee testimony from child psychiatrist and psychiatry section council member Louis Kraus, M.D.

“Time and time again I hear from families wondering if they should avoid vaccines,” Kraus said. “Thousands of kids are not being vaccinated because of faulty information. One of the key components of this resolution is not just that we support the concept of vaccination but that we support the dissemination of information. There is repetitive research showing that vaccines are not a causative agent of autism.” ▪