The AAMC submitted a July 14 response to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) request for information on deregulation, as part of the administration’s campaign to drive innovation and “make America healthy again” [refer to Washington Highlights, May 16]. Acknowledging the complex regulatory landscape that academic medical institutions navigate, the AAMC emphasized the need to modernize outdated requirements, harmonize duplicative regulations, and streamline compliance without compromising critical protections.
The letter urged the HHS to adopt a balanced, evidence-based approach that incorporates meaningful dialogue with the regulated community and fully adheres to the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice and comment requirements. The AAMC’s key recommendations included calling for permanent regulatory flexibilities in telehealth and virtual supervision, addressing the delays in care caused by prior authorization, reforms to the Quality Payment Program and hospital quality reporting, and withdrawal of certain rules with unclear statutory authority or disproportionate burden. The association also encouraged the HHS to harmonize conflict of interest rules across agencies, establish a research policy board to improve cross-agency coordination, and align requirements related to single institutional review boards. These recommendations echo themes raised in the AAMC’s recent responses to the Office of Management and Budget’s request for information on deregulation [refer to Washington Highlights, May 16] and the CMS request for information included in this year’s inpatient payment proposed rule [refer to Washington Highlights, June 13]. Together, the efforts reflect the association’s commitment to ensuring the ability of medical schools and academic health systems to advance scientific progress and deliver high-quality patient care.