IMA doctors reaching out to newly elected members in their home states and districts with a practicing clinician’s view on transparency, patient choice, prior-authorization delays, and the prescription drug use epidemic.
Physicians with the Independent Medical Alliance (IMA), a national coalition of more than 20,000 independent physicians, researchers and healthcare professionals, are preparing to connect in the coming weeks with newly elected members of Congress in their home states and districts, offering lawmakers of both parties a local, practicing physician they can call on for health policy.
The IMA will brief incoming members on problems independent doctors see in their own practices: insurer prior authorization that delays treatment patients’ doctors have already ordered, rising prescription drug use, corporate consolidation pressures that are eliminating individual patient solutions and instead producing a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, and the right of patients and parents to complete information before treatment.
“Every new member of Congress will be voting on policy that reaches into exam rooms in their district,” said Dr. Joseph Varon, IMA President and Chief Medical Officer. “They should be able to pick up the phone and talk to a doctor back home who answers to patients, not to a hospital system, an insurer or a political party. Our physicians will bring data and clinical experience, and they’ll bring them to any office that wants them, Republican or Democrat.”
IMA physicians practice in all 50 states across dozens of specialties. The organization’s weekly Health Policy Brief, which draws on government and peer-reviewed data, reaches more than 9,000 policymakers, congressional staff and journalists nationwide, and is available to any congressional office on request. The IMA’s Journal of Independent Medicine provides the nation’s foremost independent forum for doctors, researchers and other clinicians to discuss medical conditions, potential cures, and other aspects of healthcare.
To arrange an interview with one of our doctors, contact [email protected].
