Delegates representing the AASM participated in final week’s annual assembly of the American Medical Affiliation (AMA) Home of Delegates, which adopted a brand new coverage declaring that sleep deprivation is a disaster. The assembly was held June 6 – 11 in Chicago.
AASM delegates participated in reference committees and caucus conferences, together with the Specialty and Service Society (the biggest caucus within the AMA), the place they mentioned and debated points impacting the apply of drugs, together with training, protection, public well being, and advocacy. Then they voted on behalf of the AASM within the Home of Delegates.
Sleep deprivation is a public well being disaster
New resolutions handed by the AMA Home of Delegates included the declaration that sleep deprivation is a public well being disaster. This new AMA coverage acknowledges the function of sleep well being for all individuals and declares that sleep well being is a public well being precedence. By adoption of this coverage, the AMA will assist efforts to extend analysis into the drivers of sleep deprivation and advocate for public well being interventions and insurance policies that enhance sleep well being.
Membership drives AMA engagement
The AMA is the biggest doctor group in the US, and the AASM was admitted to the AMA Home of Delegates in 1996. AASM participation is essential to make sure that AMA insurance policies appropriately handle sleep and the apply of sleep drugs. Advocacy by the AASM and our delegates has prevented passage of earlier resolutions that will have had a adverse impression on AASM members.
Having illustration within the AMA Home of Delegates additionally permits the AASM to have advisory seats for the AMA Present Procedural Terminology (CPT) Editorial Panel and the AMA/Specialty Society Relative Worth Scale Replace Committee (RUC). These seats allow the AASM to characterize the pursuits and desires of sleep specialists in updating and sustaining billing codes for the sleep discipline. This advisory function additionally permits the AASM to be concerned in offering advisable relative worth models for doctor companies to the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers (CMS).
None of those alternatives can be doable with out the assist of AASM members. AMA illustration relies upon the twin membership of physicians within the AASM and AMA. We urge our doctor members to turn into a member of the AMA, at present for half-dues, to make sure sleep drugs continues to be represented within the AMA. Assist us to positively impression the sphere of drugs by your AMA membership.
