AMA Interim Meeting Weighs in on Changed Dynamics in Washington, D.C.

November 12, 2026

Coming just days after the midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the 2026 AMA Interim Meeting of the House of Delegates (HOD) on November 6–10, in Orlando, Florida, began with a defiant tone.  

AMA CEO John Whyte, MD, reflected the outcomes with a public statement of the importance of supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion, LGBTQ patients and colleagues, and international students, residents, and physicians.  

The MMA was once again represented by an engaged and dedicated group of physicians from across the state.

At the meeting, the MMA submitted a resolution (authored by Past President Lisa Mattson, MD) to support developing modifiers that improve coding accuracy and data collection when non-physician practitioners consult physicians or transfer care to them. The HOD concurred with the intent of the resolution but expressed concern that the term “independently practicing” was poorly defined between states. The resolution was referred to the AMA Board of Trustees for a decision. 

The MMA also strategized with the North Central Medical Conference (NCMC), a regional caucus consisting of delegates from the Dakotas, Iowa, and Nebraska, to successfully amend a resolution related to AMA policy on emergency room designations. The original resolution would have required emergency rooms to “provide 24/7 on-site coverage by a qualified physician,” which NCMC believed was untenable for rural emergency rooms. By strategizing as a group, NCMC was successful in changing the language to “provide 24/7 coverage by a qualified physician who is immediately available in-person,” to accommodate the use of local, on-call physicians. 

Former MMA President Laurel Ries, MD, testifies on an AMA resolution.

The HOD resolved to be more aggressive at fighting the upcoming significant reimbursement reduction for Modifier 25, including all policy and legal options. HOD members expressed concern that the application of this modifier will lead to delayed/missed care and patient harm, and puts independent medical practices at untenable negative financial risk. 

Other items of interest to MMA members include: 

• The AMA supported increasing federal alcohol excise taxes and indexing them to inflation. Increasing alcohol prices is among the Minnesota Department of Health's recommended prevention strategies. 
• The AMA opposed government efforts to obtain identifiable patient records to investigate otherwise ethical, evidence-based care. This is particularly relevant as Children's Minnesota is challenging a Department of Justice subpoena seeking records of patients who received gender-affirming care. 
• The AMA supported research into hormone treatment and cancer risks, improved cancer screening and prevention, and better health data collection for transgender and gender-diverse patients, while protecting privacy. 
• The AMA opposed EPA efforts to rescind federal PFAS drinking water protections. This reinforces existing MMA policy addressing Minnesota's significant PFAS contamination concerns. 
• The AMA supported protecting evidence-based counseling and physician clinical judgment in federally funded Title X family planning programs. This reinforces MMA policies supporting reproductive healthcare access and patient autonomy.  
• The AMA supported legislative, regulatory, and national advocacy efforts that require firearm manufacturers to pay a proportion of the public costs associated with firearm injuries and death related to their products, and would direct the revenue towards evidence-based methods of firearm-related injury prevention, and to support affected people and communities.  
• The AMA supported the need for USMLE or COMLEX to ensure flexible test dates to accommodate the most availability and ability to complete exams in a timely fashion, especially when unexpected changes occur.  
• The AMA delegation referred to its board for further study and/or decision resolutions on supporting efforts to strengthen medical staffs through collection actions and/or unionization, and guidelines on chaperones for sensitive exams.  

In other AMA-related news: 

Former MMA President and rising AMA delegate Laurel Ries, MD, is running for an open seat on the Council for Science and Public Health (CSAPH). The election will be held at the Annual Meeting in June 2027. CSAPH is one of the AMA’s elected councils with a primary responsibility to ensure that AMA policy on scientific, medical, and public health issues is grounded in science.  

The MMA delegation selected Ries as its new chair. It also agreed to elect a vice chair, who will serve as support and redundancy to the chair. Mattson will hold that position. The delegation also voted to create a term of three-years for each position with the opportunity to run for, and serve, a second term, if elected.  

This was Cindy Firkins Smith, MD, MHCI, FAAD's last AMA meeting as an AMA delegate and chair. Smith has been a continuous member of the MMA since 1982, and a member of the AMA delegation since 2014. She has served on the Board of Trustees (as either a trustee, officer, or ex-officio member) for 17 years.  She will continue to serve on the MMA Foundation board, and with the MMA’s leadership institute. 

Along with Ries, Mattson and Smith, the MMA was represented at the meeting by JP Abenstein, MSEE, MD, FASA; Andrea Hillerud, MD; MMA President Dania Kamp, MD; Dennis O’Hare, MD; Ashok Patel, MD; and Dave Thorson, MD. Michael Rigby, MD, and Sheryl Fuehrer, MD, were in attendance as delegates from the Resident Fellow Section. MMA president-elect Dionne Hart, MD, represented the American Psychiatry Association and Mary Lawrence, MD, attended in her position as a member of the AMPAC Board of Directors. Janet Silversmith, MMA CEO, and Adrian Uphoff, MMA manager of health policy & regulatory affairs were also in attendance. Uphoff serves as lead support for the delegation and for the North Central Medical Conference.  Silversmith is currently serving as chair of State Medical CEOs.