The American Medical Association is about to make an unprecedented house call on several U.S. senators who oppose its managed-care reform agenda in Washington.
The AMA on Thursday is launching the beginning of an aggressive media and advertising blitz in key states where the group says it needs just one senator to change his mind to get enough votes to pass patients’ rights legislation.
The effort is part of the increasingly activist role the Chicago-based AMA is taking on against the insurance industry and those in Congress who oppose a doctor-supported law that would give patients the right to sue their managed-care plans. If passed, such a law would widen malpractice liability from doctors to include insurers.
Already, the AMA, which is holding its annual meeting in Chicago this week, has spent undisclosed millions of dollars on a litigation center medical groups can use to file suits or support other legal actions against managed-care companies. More than 20 legal actions are pending in state and federal courts.
Such moves are in stark contrast to much of the late 1990s when the AMA had been accused by member doctors of being out of touch.
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“The difference now is that we are going to turn up the heat [on senators] and be more aggressive,” said Dr. Thomas Reardon, an Oregon physician and president of the AMA.
Traditionally, the AMA spent millions of dollars on advertising and media to explain doctors’ positions on issues, but the campaign beginning Thursday specifically names senators and will include visits by doctors to their home states.
The AMA this year is spending “$2 million to $3 million over and above” what the doctors group typically spends in Washington in its battle against the insurance industry, AMA officials said.
Earlier this month, the Senate killed patients rights legislation by a 51-48 vote, with one senator who would have supported the AMA’s bill absent. The patients’ bill of rights measure put before the Senate is almost identical to legislation approved by the House last year.
To change the minds of Republican senators, the AMA is expected to spend several hundred thousand dollars on advertising and other projects.
On Thursday, the AMA’s advertising will include print ads praising four Republican senators, including Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois, for breaking ranks with the GOP in support of the doctor-backed bill.
Next week, the AMA will target senators who have opposed the organization, beginning first in Missouri where doctors say Sen. John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) has sided with the insurance industry. The AMA also plans to target several other states, specifically citing those represented by Sens. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) and Spencer Abraham (R.-Mich.).
“We are angry and frustrated with the foot-dragging [on the legislation],” said Dr. Ted Lewers, the AMA’s chairman of the board.
The AMA will deploy several doctors to meet with media throughout Missouri and other states through a so-called “House Calls Campaign” and eventually plans to buy advertising time. Reardon said “several” other states could be involved.
Told of the AMA’s tactics, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said, “The AMA has just about broken off all of their working relationships with Republicans.
“If they keep up these tactics, it may be a permanent rupture,” Lott said in an interview outside the Senate chamber.
The first target of the AMA’s campaign, Missouri’s Ashcroft, said he was unaware that the nation’s largest doctor group would soon be lobbying him in his home state. “I haven’t been told that, but I’ll believe what you say,” Ashcroft said.