Delegates at the interim meeting of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates discussed a national ban on corporate control of practices by those outside of medicine.
Matthew Gold, MD, introduced a policy on behalf of the Organized Medical Staff Section and the Private Practice Physicians Section that focuses on the corporate practice of medicine doctrine.
The Corporate Practice of Medicine (CPOM) is a legal prohibition that exists to "keep the business interest out of the physician-patient relationship [and] specifically prohibits the ownership and operation of medical groups or practices by laypersons."
The policy introduced would update the AMA's take on CPOM by amending its wording to say that the organization "will seek federal legislation to prohibit the corporate practice of medicine by limiting ownership and corporate control of physician medical practices to physicians or physician-owned groups only and ensure private equity/non-medical groups do not have a controlling interest."