News

CONTACT:

Tom Flatt
(703) 838-0033 ext. 328
tflatt@amga.org

6 January 2009

AMGA Reports Significant Growth in 2008

ALEXANDRIA, VA - The American Medical Group Association announced significant growth in 2008, as well as noteworthy accomplishments in its advocacy, fundraising, and quality and research efforts. AMGA added 37 new member groups, representing more than 5,200 physicians treating nearly 5 million patients. This continued growth brings AMGA's total physician representation to more than 95,000 physicians and paves the way for another year of strengthening AMGA's voice on behalf of medical groups and organized systems of care.

The membership growth can be attributed to a variety of factors, including the success of AMGA's advocacy efforts. In the nation's capital, AMGA was instrumental in advancing medical group priority issues including: successfully advocating for incentive payments for electronic prescriptions and allowing medical groups to submit aggregated, group level quality data in Medicare's Physician Quality Reporting Initiative. In addition, AMGA worked with organized medicine to eliminate the 10% cut to physician fees that had been scheduled in 2008. AMGA will continue to focus its efforts in 2009 on demonstrating to Congress and the White House that the medical group model should serve as the foundation for a reformed 21st century healthcare system.

"With a new administration, medical groups know they need a voice representing their interests in the healthcare debate that is sure to come in 2009," said Donald W. Fisher, Ph.D., CAE, president and chief executive officer of AMGA. "There is increasing recognition among policy leaders that the type of coordinated patient care practiced in multispecialty medical groups and other organized systems of care is a large part of the solution to many of the problems in our healthcare system. AMGA has become the clear, national voice for the multispecialty medical group model, and our success reflects the achievements of the world class institutions in our membership."

AMGA also was a leader on the quality and research front. Programs devoted to advancing quality improvement experienced substantial growth, including collaborative studies on better management of patients with hypertension and diabetes. American Medical Group Foundation, AMGA's 501(c)(3) research arm, exceeded its fundraising milestone of $1 million in pledges through its Founding Member campaign. AMGF also made significant headway in its efforts to examine the relationship between organized physician groups and delivery systems and improved quality and cost efficiencies through its subsidiary the Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP). AMGA members participated in several high-profile research and demonstration projects with CMS, the Commonwealth Fund, and the Group Practice Performance Study, all of which are proving that multispecialty medical groups can provide greater accountability for the quality and cost of care because they have the organizational structure, resources, and information base to do so. AMGA's collaborative data warehouse, Anceta, refined and expanded the scope of its data model and the depth of its analytics, taking full advantage of AMGA members' leadership position in the use of electronic health records and e-prescribing and in quality management.

Finally, AMGA's annual conference continues to be the premier educational and networking event for the leaders of multispecialty medical groups. The 2008 conference surpassed all previous conferences in terms of attendance and speaker evaluations. To help its members weather the economic downturn, AMGA has developed a compelling annual conference for March 2009, and registrations are already exceeding last year's record pace.

"In this economy, new ideas are not a luxury; they're a necessity," said Fisher. "More and more groups have identified AMGA as the source for ways to streamline operations while improving patient care. We look forward to creating additional venues for exchanging solutions to the challenges facing medical groups in 2009."

AMGA's mission is to improve health care for patients by supporting multispecialty medical groups and other organized systems of care. The members of AMGA deliver health care to approximately 95 million patients in 47 states, more than 1 in 4 Americans. The average AMGA member medical group has 286 physicians and 20 satellite locations. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, AMGA is the strategic partner for medical groups, providing a comprehensive package of benefits, including political advocacy, educational and networking programs and publications, benchmarking data services, and financial and operations assistance.

Website Terms and Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy