American Medical Association

The American Medical Assn., after 60 years of opposing any government overhaul of healthcare, is now lobbying and advertising to win public support for President Obama's sweeping plan -- a proposal that promises hundreds of billions of dollars for America's doctors. Of all the interest groups that have won favorable terms in closed-door negotiations this year, the association representing the nation's physicians may have taken home the biggest prizes, including an agreement to stop planned cuts in Medicare payments that are worth $228 billion to doctors over 10 years.

The American Medical Assn. on Tuesday urged the federal government to reconsider its classification of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no accepted medical use, a significant shift that puts the prestigious group behind calls for more research. The nation's largest physicians organization, with about 250,000 member doctors, the AMA has maintained since 1997 that marijuana should remain a Schedule I controlled substance, the most restrictive category, which also includes heroin and LSD. In changing its policy, the group said its goal was to clear the way to conduct clinical research, develop cannabis-based medicines and devise alternative ways to deliver the drug.

The American Medical Assn. is joining several state medical associations in suing health insurers Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp. over a database they say was rigged to underpay doctors on out-of-network claims for more than a decade. But Cigna said doctors' rates were part of the problem. The lawsuits heap more criticism on Ingenix Inc. data that already have cost UnitedHealth Group Inc. of Minnetonka, Minn., $350 million to settle a separate lawsuit involving the AMA.

Insurance companies often fail to properly reimburse doctors, needlessly adding more than $200 billion a year to the nation's healthcare tab, the American Medical Assn. said Monday. An analysis of 3 million medical claims over a six-month period beginning in October also found that doctors in the U.S. spend 14% of the fees they receive from insurers and Medicare on the process of collecting those fees, the AMA said in a report issued at its annual meeting in Chicago.

An American Medical Assn. committee meeting in Chicago to consider its future public health agenda asked its policymaking body Sunday to determine whether to support adding video game addiction to a key handbook on mental illness. Testimony at the AMA annual meeting seemed to favor deferring to the American Psychiatric Assn., which will make the final call as it writes a new edition of a diagnostic manual for mental health professionals.

Video-game buffs might feel hooked on their favorite titles, but they won't be officially addicted anytime soon. Saying the issue needed more study, the American Medical Assn. on Wednesday scaled back a controversial proposal that sought to declare excessive video-game playing a mental disorder akin to pathological gambling. The association also decided against urging parents to limit to two hours a day the amount of time their kids play video games, watch television and surf the Internet.

The American Medical Assn., seeking to influence the healthcare debate in the 2008 election, kicked off a three-year, multimillion-dollar ad campaign at a news conference Thursday to promote its plan to provide health coverage for the estimated 45 million people in America who lack insurance. "There's a misconception about who the uninsured are," said Dr. Nancy H. Nielsen, the AMA's president-elect. "One in seven people are uninsured . . .

The American Medical Assn., holding its annual meeting in Atlanta, is weighing whether to support importing prescription drugs from outside the U.S. "We owe it to our patients to advocate for safe importation of drugs," Stephanie Stanton, a voting AMA delegate and medical student from the University of Minnesota, said at a meeting of the House of Delegates. "This is all because of our patients, and it is driven by our patients."

CHICAGO --The American Medical Assn. board has rejected a $1.6-million loan request from its pioneering doctors union, touching off a battle for its survival. Dr. Mark Fox, president of the union, Physicians for Responsible Negotiation, said Thursday that the board's move was unexpected and "has really cut the legs off the organization." "Since the AMA has been our sole source of funding, at this point it puts us in a bind," Fox said. He said the union's money probably will run out this summer.

The American Medical Assn. is spending $1 million to tell doctors not to accept big gifts from drug companies--in an education campaign funded mostly by drug companies. Critics expressed amazement about the AMA's use of industry funding. "Whoever is making decisions over there seems to be just brain-dead," Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director of the consumer-oriented Public Citizen Health Research Group, said Wednesday. "This is just prostitution." The AMA said a spokesman was not immediately available.