Resolution Outcomes and Actions - Second Half 2025 Cycle

Following the House of Delegates' resolutions actions in Spring of 2025, MSMA opened a resolution cycle that began in June 2025 and ended in October 2025 allowing members to submit resolutions and submit online comments.  An appointed Resolution Committee reviewed the below resolutions, directed them to appropriate subcommittees, then Council discussed and voted.

Note:  The 2026 resolution submission cycle concluded this weekend (May 31).  Resolutions submitted between March 1 and May 31 will be reviewed by the Resolution Committee and presented at the July Council meeting.  Following, MSMA members will be encouraged to comment online on the resolutions submitted this spring.

Below are the resolution outcomes from the second half of 2025. Any questions, contact Jeff Howell at jhowell@msma.org.

Resolution 1: On-Site Physician Availability in Emergency Departments

Action: Amended Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that the MSMA delegation to the AMA House of Delegates support a resolution to encourage the AMA to advocate for the indefinite extension of telemedicine reimbursement waivers scheduled to sunset on September 30, 2025.

Resolution 2: Telemedicine

Action: Substitute Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that the MSMA delegation to the AMA House of Delegates support a resolution to encourage the AMA to advocate for the indefinite extension of telemedicine reimbursement waivers scheduled to sunset on September 30, 2025.

Resolution 3: Standardized Pricing and Formulary Access for Compassionate Prescribing of Opioids in Palliative Care

Action: Amended Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that the Missouri State Medical Association (MSMA) advocate for standardized pricing policies and equitable formulary access for core opioid medications used in compassionate prescribing for patients with serious illness, especially those in palliative care settings as these medications are provided through the hospice Medicare benefit, but are only available through a prescription plan for palliative care patients; and be it further

RESOLVED, that MSMA support federal and state policy initiatives aimed at improving drug pricing transparency, reducing nonmedical formulary switching, and enhancing physician access to real-time cost information at the point of prescribing; and be it further

RESOLVED, that MSMA support initiatives to require insurance companies to have affordable coverage policies (same tier pricing, or fixed copay like insulin) for compassionate opiate prescriptions; and be it further

RESOLVED, that MSMA encourage regulatory bodies to monitor and address the impact of drug shortages and insurance denials on high-risk prescribing practices, including the burden on physicians and the safety of patients who require uninterrupted opioid therapy for pain management; and further, that MSMA advocate that these bodies investigate, understand, and seek to resolve or report shortages in palliative opioids that disrupt patient quality of care, threaten the continuity of care, and place additional prescribing and administrative burdens on physicians.

Resolution 4: Review of Past Resolutions

Action: Substitute Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that the MSMA delegation to the AMA House of Delegates support a resolution to encourage the AMA Board of Trustees to present a detailed and aggregate report that is easily accessible and includes at least the past ten years of data regarding the number of resolutions submitted to the AMA House of Delegates at both annual and interim meetings, the number of resolutions specific to advocacy on medical practice sustainability, and the percentage of resolutions that have been implemented.

Resolution 5: Annual Scorecard to Evaluate the AMA’s Impact

Action: Substitute Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that the MSMA delegation to the AMA House of Delegates support a resolution asking the AMA to implement a comprehensive scorecard to measure its effectiveness in key areas.

Resolution 6: Supporting and Promoting (Appropriate) AMA Member Physicians and Physician Spouses as Candidates for Local and State Offices

Action: Substitute Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that the MSMA delegation to the AMA House of Delegates support a resolution asking the AMA to study the feasibility of collaborating with state medical societies and specialty societies to identify physicians and physician spouses running for state and local offices, and that this information be used to support physicians and physician spouses who are aligned with organized medicine’s priorities; and be it further

RESOLVED, that the MSMA delegation will forward this resolution to the AMA House of Delegates.

Resolution 8: Hospital Internal Temperatures

Action: Resolution Not Adopted

RESOLVED, That our MSMA will ask the AMA to persuade TJC (and other hospital accreditation organizations) to create a mandatory standard for hospitals’ common area internal temperatures, to be regularly monitored in those hospital common areas, toward enabling both fuel and monetary savings that would accrue if hospital common area internal temperatures were not kept at levels that require visitors to bring extra clothing to the hospital to enable their comfort while visiting patients.

Resolution 9: Supporting Legislative Efforts to Protect Children from Harmful Custody Proceedings

Action: Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that our MSMA support legislative efforts to strengthen child custody laws in a manner that prioritizes child safety in cases of family violence, including but not limited to the use of qualified expertise, evidence-based practices, trauma-informed training, and consideration of prior abuse in child custody cases.

Resolution 10: Medical Record Access to Aging Out Foster Youth

Action: Amended Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that the MSMA supports efforts to mandate state child welfare agencies to provide foster youth with a complete and portable medical record summary upon aging out of care; and, be it further

RESOLVED, that our MSMA encourages the use of electronic health record (EHR) systems and inter-agency data sharing to ensure foster youth maintain access to their medical histories after transitioning to adulthood.

Resolution 11: Advancing Aging Medicine

Action: Substitute Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that the MSMA support programs that support longevity healthcare, and enhance patient education, early detection, and treatment of age-related diseases.

Resolution 12: Missouri Health Care Stabilization Fund Ad-Hoc Committee

Action: Resolution Adopted

RESOLVED, that MSMA assemble an ad-hoc committee to:

1) Investigate the feasibility of establishing a Missouri health care stabilization fund, and

2) Provide recommendations to the MSMA Council.

Resolution 13: Continuity of Care for Rural Patients

Action: Resolution Not Adopted

RESOLVED, that denial of phone access to higher level medical centers’ specialists, after being requested by rural emergency physicians, must become classified as an unethical abandonment of the patient and their needs, which must become proscribed by new laws or regulations that could be adopted by leaders or legislators of the various states; and, be it further

RESOLVED, that specialist physicians at higher level medical centers who may not have the opportunity to participate in or guide care of these patients after their transfer from a rural hospital may have an understandable medico-legal concerns that merit becoming addressed in a manner similar to the protections offered by “Good Samaritan” laws which exist in the various states of the United States; and, be it further

RESOLVED, that such laws or regulations should be created to protect these specialist physicians, whose advice is crucial to optimal patient management; and, be it further

RESOLVED, that this organization will create model legislation to address these two linked issues of patient abandonment and specialists’ medico-legal concerns, and then advocate for adoption of such legislation or regulations in each of the various states of the United States, to best protect the interests of and health of rural patients with complex medical needs, while optimizing access by rural emergency physicians to the professional guidance that can best be provided by a specialist from the group providing these patients’ care for their complex medical needs.