AMA brainstorms on key topics impacting healthcare
The American Medical Association (AMA) has outlined seven key topics impacting healthcare and is seeking input from its physician advisors at a brainstorming meeting this weekend at the annual AMA House of Delegates (HOD) meeting in Chicago. The agenda offers insights into what current issues the AMA is looking to take policy positions on and how it gathers ideas on how to best approach these issues.
Topics include how to address Trump executive orders that contradict AMA policies previously adopted by the House of Medicine, how to address the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), response to the Make America Healthy Again initiative, and how to approach growing barriers to care from large corporate insurance companies.
This session is part of the AMA Council on Long Range Planning & Development (CLRPD) agenda at the HOD. The group studies long-term strategic issues related to the AMA’s vision, goals and priorities and advises the Board of Trustees on strategies to reach the AMA's long-range objectives.
The future of physician self-governance
Physicians have historically had the responsibility and privilege to regulate the practice of medicine itself. This includes assurances to establish high standards of education and training, maintain professional competence, “do no harm,” and remediate or discipline unethical, immoral, or incompetent practices. But increasingly, non-physicians and regulators are encroaching on this social compact, including several recent events earlier this year, the AMA said in the information packet for the CLRPD brainstorming session.
President Trump issued an executive order targeting the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for enforcing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) requirements as an accreditation standard. This is in direct conflict with previously adopted AMA policies that see DEI policy as a way to increase the entry and status of women and minorities in the practice of medicine. Medicine was dominated in the past by white males who often limited advancement, pay and hiring of women and minorities, which caused the DEI policies to be put in place to foster greater equality.
Another big concern is the changing landscape of ownership of U.S. healthcare. The AMA said the percentage of physicians in practices not wholly owned by physicians rose from 39.9% in 2012, to 53.3% in 2022. This is part of a large movement of consolidation of hospitals and private practices into larger healthcare systems. Private equity ownership of practices also plays a role. Both trends have largely been fueled by Medicare and private insurance payment policies over the past decade that put physician-owned practices at a disadvantage.
There are also concerns about changes that might be coming for the Medication Access and Training Expansion (MATE) Act training requirements. MATE requires a one-time, eight-hour training on treating and managing patients with opioid or other substance use disorders. But the AMA has concerns that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and some states may change requirements to require additional continuing medical education on a regular basis, which would add administrative burdens on providers.
Next frontier of biopharma and clinical innovation
The AMA said a wave of breakthrough therapies and technologies in recent years, including PD-1s to GLP-1s, cell and gene therapies, have already reshaped standards of care for many conditions. The clinical innovation pipeline is poised for continued acceleration, with transformative potential across prevention, diagnosis and treatment paradigms.
AI will play a rapidly growing role in this research, with 30% of new drugs expected to be discovered using AI by 2025, according to the World Economic Forum. Quantum computing, materials science, and other technologies are also expected to change the trajectory of innovation in the coming years and likely redefine the role of the physician, the AMA said.
Increased scrutiny of nonprofit healthcare
The healthcare sector is made up of a network of not-for-profit organizations. But recently, the AMA said the public backlash against profiteering in healthcare has reached unprecedented levels, with UnitedHealth Group emerging as a poster child for excessive gains. At the same time, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Congress have signaled a growing willingness under the Trump administration to scrutinize and challenge the tax-exempt benefits nonprofit organizations receive. These developments appear to signal a shifting tide in the social and regulatory expectations facing not-for-profit healthcare entities.
The AMA said the healthcare sector faces a critical inflection point where the association may need to help redefine definitions of what it means to be a not-for-profit today, or risk being redefined by regulators and public opinion.
Physician roles are changing beyond direct patient care
The AMA said there is a trend where physicians are increasingly being pushed and pulled into non-clinical roles across health sectors. This includes physician expertise being sought for consultation, research, and leadership not only in healthcare systems but also from life sciences companies, tech companies, payers, and policymakers. As the voice and expertise of the physician are increasingly sought beyond the bedside in roles shaping strategy, driving innovation, and leading teams, the AMA is asking if this evolving landscape demands a redefinition of the physician’s identity—beyond a healer to a systems thinker, data-driven scientist, and organizational leader.
Reimagining preventive healthcare with MAHA
In February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order establishing the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission (MAHA). Chaired by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the commission is charged with investigating the root causes of chronic disease, beginning with a focus on childhood conditions. The move signals a high-level commitment to prevention and wellness, and the AMA is watching to see if this effort will be different from previous pledges to improve healthcare.
For decades, the AMA said health leaders have envisioned a shift from reactive care to treat symptoms or acute episodes, to more proactive, population-based preventive health strategies. However, the AMA said systemic inertia, misaligned incentives, and political cycles have stalled progress in the past. The association said this new moment, with a major push by the Trump administration, may represent a critical opportunity to realign national priorities around long-term health.
Cybersecurity challenges in healthcare
Healthcare was the target of about 25% of all reported cybersecurity incidents in 2024, breaching about 6.8 billion patient records. The AMA said the most notable attack was on Change Healthcare, which alone affected an estimated 190 million people and had devastating consequences for physician practices nationwide, disrupting payments, operations, and patient care.
As technology advances and geopolitical tensions intensify, the frequency, scale, and sophistication of cyber threats are only expected to grow. The AMA said this escalating risk raises urgent questions about the sector’s preparedness, the role of public-private coordination, and what it will take to protect the digital infrastructure underpinning modern healthcare.
Healthcare price transparency subject of Trump executive order
Healthcare price transparency has long been touted as a crucial lever for cost containment and patient empowerment, but the AMA says it remains one of healthcare’s longest-running unfulfilled promises. However, the AMA believes a February 2025 Trump executive order mandating disclosure of actual negotiated prices, not just estimates, could be a catalyzing event.
"With significantly strengthened penalties, standardized reporting requirements, and unprecedented enforcement commitments, the regulatory landscape has dramatically shifted," the AMA wrote.
The Trump order calls on the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and HHS to rapidly implement and enforce the healthcare price transparency regulations to ensure hospitals and insurers disclose actual prices, not estimates. It also calls for action to make prices comparable across hospitals and insurers, including prescription drug prices.
But there are questions about whether this time will be any different from previous attempts to achieve this goal. What seems like a simple question actually involves massive complexities in figuring out prices, due to a vast number of variables that can cause significantly different prices for similar patients receiving the exact same procedure.
Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: [email protected]