Highlights from the 2025 AMA Annual Meeting
The House of Medicine concluded its 2025 AMA Annual Meeting last week, where hundreds of physician and medical student delegates debated and set policy for the organization. For a full listing of the proceedings, visit the AMA website.
One thing became clear: protecting patients, ensuring a robust public health infrastructure, and continuing to advocate on crucial issues in health care are, and always will be, a foundational part of the AMA. As Bobby Mukkamala, MD, AMA President, said in his inauguration speech, “I’m afraid it only gets worse from here if we cannot press Congress and policymakers to address the most egregious failures of our current system and put health care back on solid ground. This won’t happen by accident...It only happens because physicians, in great numbers, stand up and demand that it happens. That is the work of the AMA.”
Delegates adopted new policies on the following (among others):
The reshaping of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (issuing press statements after the sudden removal of all sitting members and rapid replacement with new members)
The National Institutes of Health restructuring
Preservation of Medicaid
Continuing to advocate for systemic Medicare physician payment reform
After the conclusion of the meeting, the AMA sent a letter (PDF) to Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, urging, “An inquiry as to the circumstances surrounding the decision to remove and replace all sitting members of ACIP.” In addition, the AMA and nearly 100 state medical associations and national medical specialty societies sent a sign-on letter (PDF) to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., expressing deep concern over the recent termination of 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The AMA will be sending a letter soon detailing concerns raised by the potential restructuring of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Institutes and Centers and regarding the proposed funding cuts for FY 2026. The letter will also highlight significant concern regarding NIH’s halts on previously awarded grant funding.
Additional meeting highlights include:
AMA news story: The AMA steps up its efforts to fix prior authorization
AMA news story: In burnout work, take care with physicians’ personal health data
AMA news story: Make sure health AI works for patients and physicians
Press release: AMA president: Doctors must turn discontent into decisive action
Press release: AMA draws a line on corporate intrusion into physician autonomy
AMA Update episode with Todd Askew: What’s the AMA doing for docs in 2025?
The AMA Advocacy Impact Report further details efforts on the key topics driving health care reform.
