HHS Chief Pledges Regulatory Relief.

CHICAGO -- A promise from the Bush administration to communicate with physicians on reducing regulatory burdens kicked off the 100th anniversary meeting of the American Medical Association in June.

Addressing AMA's House of Delegates, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told his audience, "You were not called to be file clerks or accountants or to have your time and resources drained away by filling out form after form." He said that HHS is forming a new regulatory reform group that will examine regulations that deter physicians from doing their job.

Secretary Thompson's remarks on several occasions generated enthusiastic applause from a delegation that faces another year of declining membership rolls yet is determined to maintain a strong lobbying presence in Washington, D.C., including its recent support for the McCain-Edwards patients' rights bill (S. 1052), which the administration opposes.

The administration supports Sen. Bill Frist's (R-Tenn.) patients' rights bill (S. 889), which would not give patients the right to sue their HMOs.

But in a conciliatory address, Secretary Thompson said that the administration wants to join with the AMA "in finding a place where our minds and our legislative proposals can fully and effectively meet."

In addition, he urged AMA members to pitch solutions on government regulatory activities to him directly, rather than just complaining about rules that burden the profession.

The AMA delegates stood pat in their opposition to the Office of the Inspector General's "unwarranted" punitive approach to billing-fraud investigation and prosecution.