AMA panel gives PPACA watchdog proposal cold shoulder

By Allison Bell

June 11, 2014 at 03:34 AM

Share & Print

A key panel at the American Medical Association (AMA) wants the group to fend off an effort to express skepticism about Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) implementation. An AMA committee recommended that members of the House of Delegates — the AMA's governing body — reject a resolution that calls for the AMA to support the creation of a special inspector general to oversee administration of PPACA. The House of Delegates has been holding its annual meeting in Chicago this week.

Advocates of the PPACA inspector general resolution said PPACA is so complicated, expensive and important that appointing a special inspector general for PPACA in the federal government is necessary to prevent waste, fraud and abuse, the committee explains in a discussion of the resolution.

Opponents of the measure said the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is already monitoring PPACA implementation. This also includes the implementation of the PPACA exchange and PPACA Medicaid expansion initiatives, the committee says.

Dr. Ardis Hoven, president of the AMA, said in a speech at the meeting that the AMA is actively trying to shape implementation of PPACA at both the state and federal level. At the state level, for example, the AMA has drafted model bills governing matters such as PPACA-related contract changes and administrative requirements. Washington state has enacted a law based on the models, Hoven said, according to a text of her speech posted on the AMA website.

NOT FOR REPRINT