Coy A. Flowers, MD, associate professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and Division Chief and Medical Director for UK Women’s Health in Georgetown, recently represented the more than 64,000 OB-GYN physicians in the United States as a delegate from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) to the American Medical Association (AMA)’s House of Delegates (HOD) from November 8-12, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. The HOD is the legislative and policy-making body of the AMA. State medical associations and national medical specialty societies are represented in the HOD along with AMA sections, national societies such as AMWA, AOA, and the NMA, professional interest medical associations, and federal services, including the Public Health Service.
The AMA HOD collectively works in a democratic process to create a national physician consensus on emerging issues in public health, science, ethics, business, and government to improve the care and public health of patients and communities. The policies adopted at twice-yearly meetings provide the AMA direction and act as a driving force on the future of American medicine. In doing so, the Delegates strengthen the AMA in its relentless advocacy role in fighting for physicians.
Highlights from this meeting of the AMA HOD included:
·Leading the charge to reform the Medicare payment system.
·Fighting to fix prior authorization by challenging insurance companies to eliminate care delays, patient harms, and practice hassles.
·Fighting to make technology work for physicians. From AI implementation to EHR adoption and usability, the AMA is working to ensure that tech is an asset to doctors—not a burden.
·Leading the charge on physician well-being, reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens, and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the joy in medicine.
Dr. Flowers has been an ACOG Delegate to the AMA HOD since 2019, actively participating in this important work that influences healthcare policy on a global scale, not only in the United States but around the world. There are a little over 700 official AMA HOD Delegates from all specialties. ACOG has 14 seats, and Dr. Flowers has held one of those seats for the last five years.
“When I walk into a board room of physician colleagues from diverse specialties, I am looked to as the preeminent expert on women's healthcare policy,” Dr. Flowers said. “They listen and defer to my experience and knowledge on issues surrounding pregnancy and comprehensive GYN care. I often tell specific stories about patients to solidify salient points in my medicine colleagues’ memories, and I often relay the experiences of nurses and staff about what is working and what is not in healthcare today.”
Several of the issues addressed at this meeting in women’s health focused on minimum12-week maternity leave for physicians – especially those who are in residency training, protection of the doctor-patient relationship with access to comprehensive reproductive health care, recruitment challenges for OB-GYN physicians in rural areas of the country, appropriate reimbursement and valuation of care provided for OB-GYN patients, and recognizing pregnancy as a triggering event for insurance plan enrollment.
In the AMA HOD, Flowers has specialized in the area of Medical Service, an area that focuses on health systems, payers, and reimbursement. He also is the sole OB-GYN on the AMA National Task Force on Firearm Injury Prevention which was created by the HOD last year.