Why APA Needs Your Vote

APA President Herbert S. Sacks, M.D., invited Jerry M. Wiener, M.D., an APA delegate to the AMA and a former APA president, to use this column to bring an important message to psychiatrists about the AMA.

By Jerry M. Wiener, M.D.

To begin with, my appreciation to Herb Sacks for allowing me to use his president’s column to urge you to cast a vote for APA.

The American Psychiatric Association now has a unique window of opportunity to increase its delegate representation and therefore its visibility and influence within the American Medical Association. To do this requires that we turn out the vote of every member of the AMA who is identified as a psychiatrist, and that every one of those votes is cast for APA as his or her representative specialty society.

All physician members and fourth-year medical student members are eligible to vote. The details of how to cast your vote are outlined later in this article, elsewhere on APA's web site, and in the October 13 issue of American Medical News.

But first, I want to talk with you about our role and presence in the AMA and why this vote is so important. APA currently is represented in the AMA by two delegates - Dr. Joe English and me - and two alternate delegates - Drs. Jay Scully and Carolyn Robinowitz. In addition, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) has a delegate and alternate - Drs. David Fassler and Judith Dogin, respectively. These two delegations, along with several other appointed members, form the Psychiatry Section Council at the AMA, chaired by Dr. English (appointed by APA), with Dr. Fassler as the vice chair (appointed by AACAP). Most important, we receive our representation through the specialty society delegation allocation, which is decided by how many AMA members designate APA as their representative. One delegate and alternate are earned for each 2,000 votes cast.

Up until a few years ago membership of psychiatrists in the AMA was proportionately lower than that of other specialists, and considering that we are the fifth largest specialty, that represented numbers far below those of many smaller specialties. Over the past few years, as psychiatry has increasingly identified itself with the medical model and with the house of medicine, our membership in the AMA has risen. We have increasingly recognized how important the AMA can be to addressing our concerns for quality care for our patients and issues important to our profession, and the AMA has reached out to psychiatry to become a more participatory and contributing force in the house of medicine.

We need the AMA, and we have much to offer in return. The important issues on which we - APA, AACAP, and the AMA - have worked together include parity coverage for mental illness, destigmatization of mental illness, opposition to psychologist prescribing privileges at the federal and (importantly) state levels, workforce determinations, proper coding and reimbursement for psychiatric services, confidentiality and privacy of patient records, and opposition to managed care practices that intrude upon and compromise the doctor-patient relationship. We have benefited greatly and countered charges of narrow self-interest by working with the AMA on these and other issues. We have contributed also to an understanding within the AMA of the modern science of psychiatry, the nature of mental illness, up-to-date information on diagnosis and treatment efficacy, and issues of ethics and confidentiality.

Hoping I’ve made the case for our role in the AMA, let me return to the topic of the vote for specialty society delegates under way from now through December. There are between 12,000 and 14,000 members of the AMA identified as psychiatrists. APA and AACAP have agreed that all those who vote should designate APA as their representative society (rather than split the vote). This should enable us to increase our representation to as many as five or six delegates and alternates, which will be in addition to the delegate and alternate already held by the AACAP. A delegation of this size would give us a greatly expanded influence and would give psychiatry its full and appropriate representation and rightful role within the AMA.

Please exercise your privilege and responsibility to vote. You may do so by any one of the means listed below. (You must have your AMA membership number to vote - if you don’t have it, you can obtain it by calling [800] 262-3211.) The AMA specialty code for APA is 516.

1. Toll-free phone: (888) 200-5309
2. E-mail: ballot@ama-assn.org
3. Interactive ballot on the AMA homepage
4. Postage-paid reply card from the ballot in the October 13 issue of American Medical News; the return address is the American Medical Association, c/o The Blackstone Group, 360 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill. 60601
5. Fax the completed ballot to (773) 267-1642

If you have any questions, please call Gene Cassel of APA’s Division of Government Relations at (202) 682-6048 or call me at (202) 994-8308.

Remember, list APA as your representative specialty society. We can win this one big! Our patients, our profession, and the AMA will be the beneficiaries of your vote. Many thanks.