• In order to protect future doctors ’ access to abortion education and training , delegates modified AMA policy to support the education of medical students , residents , and young physicians about the need for physicians who provide termination of pregnancy services and opposes efforts to interfere with or restrict the availability of this education and training .
• The House of Delegates directed the AMA through legislation , regulation , or other appropriate means to advocate for the prohibition of health insurers charging physicians and other providers to process claims and make payments .
• Recognizing the changing nature of the drug-overdose epidemic and the need to emphasize harm reduction , the House of Delegates modified existing policy to help save lives . The AMA will advocate and encourage state medical societies to support harm reduction policy that provides for civil and criminal immunity for the use of drug paraphernalia that is used as part of harm reduction initiatives .
• Clarity is needed on the use of board scores for residency application . To that end , the House of Delegates directed the AMA to work with stakeholders to release guidance for resident and fellowship program directors on equitably comparing three-digit United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 1 or COMPLEX Level 1 scores and those who receive pass-fail scores .
Finally , there are two key issues facing the AMA that engendered passionate discussion . The first issue is the establishment of the resolutions committee as a standing committee of the AMA House of Delegates . As it now stands , this committee was created temporarily to streamline the business of resolution consideration to those issues that met a priority threshold . Business volume reduction was necessary due to the nature of the special meeting virtual format . There are some who believe this process should continue even when we return to face-to-face meetings . There is opposition to this , especially from the medical student section ( MSS ), resident and fellow section ( RFS ), and young physicians section ( YPS ). A large portion of resolutions not considered at the last several virtual meetings have come from the MSS , RFS , and YPS , and these members feels their voices are not being heard . There were two resolutions submitted , one calling for dissolution of the resolutions committee and another calling for it to be established as a standing , permanent committee . These resolutions have been referred to the board for decision .
The second issue is the tremendous backlog of resolutions to be considered that have been placed on hold as not meeting priority threshold . Not meeting priority threshold does not mean these resolutions are unimportant . A decision will be made to perhaps extend the June 2022 annual meeting in Chicago to accommodate the volume of resolutions . This , of course , assumes that the June 2022 meeting can be face-to-face . If another special meeting is called , there will be a virtual format and likely a priority threshold will also need to be met .
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