The Ama's Documentation Guidelines: Physicians' Reactions (From the Archives) (Essay)

[The AMA organized a "fly-in" to Chicago on Apr 27, 1998, because of physician outrage over the AMA's proposed 1997 evaluation and management (E&M) documentation guidelines, which bore an AMA copyright notice on every page. Dr. Jane Orient tape recorded the following session, and edited a transcript. The full edited transcript from which the following remarks were excerpted is available at www. aapsonline.org/medicare/flyin.txt.] [Dr. Randolph Smoak, vice chairman of the AMA Board, introduced the comment session, asking each participant to limit remarks to two minutes. Green, yellow, and red lights were placed on the podium. The time for comments was limited to one hour, so a maximum of 15 people could fit in if people on the dais and at the microphone cooperated with the time limits. He stated that the goal is a Federation-wide solution. "Let's not focus on points that we differ on but on points that unite us in this real world."]