Participation in Coalitions, Groups, and Alliances

AMA House of Delegates

The House of Delegates is the principal policy-making body of the American Medical Association (AMA) and functions like a Congress. State medical societies and national specialty societies are represented in the House, and during these meetings ASE delegates advocate for resolutions and reports on a variety of issues of interest to cardiovascular ultrasound. The Society is actively involved in the AMA House of Delegates efforts through participation in the Cardiovascular Section Council. The CV Section Council serves as a representative for cardiovascular medicine, advocating for policies that affect cardiologists and their practices.

Current ASE Delegation:

• Peter Rahko, MD, FASE
• Kameswari Maganti, MD, FASE

Previous Meeting Summaries:

• Annual Meeting – June 2025
• Interim Meeting – November 2024
• Annual Meeting – June 2024
• Interim Meeting – November 2023
• Annual Meeting – June 2023

Alliance of Specialty Medicine

The Alliance of Specialty Medicine (the Alliance) is a coalition of national medical societies representing specialty physicians in the United States. This non-partisan group is dedicated to the development of sound federal health care policy that fosters patient access to the highest quality specialty care.

Among the Alliance’s highest policy priorities are:

• Ensuring that health care reform has a positive impact on patient access to high-quality specialty care while cutting health care costs to provide a more viable system for patient care in the long term.
• Reforming the Medicare program to ensure the greatest access to specialty care for seniors.
• Advancing reforms of our nation’s medical liability system.
• Improving patients’ access to the highest quality healthcare, in part, by assuring effective patient safety measures are in place.

The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research 

The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research is a coalition of over 500 patient and voluntary health groups, medical and scientific societies, academic and research organizations, and industry. The Ad Hoc Group has one mission: to enhance the federal investment in biomedical, behavioral, social, and population-based research by increasing the funding for the National Institutes of Health. 

GME Advocacy Coalition 

The GME Advocacy Coalition (GMEAC) is a group of organizations dedicated to the expansion and preservation of Medicare-supported graduate medical education. Founded in 2013, GMEAC has grown to over 100 physician, hospital, and patient care groups that meet monthly to discuss GME advocacy. The coalition regularly hosts Capitol Hill briefings and educational events around GME and works closely with congressional champions to promote GME legislation. 

Conversion Factor Coalition

The Conversion Factor Coalition is an ad hoc group of over 100 physician and healthcare provider organizations that advocates for legislative changes to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) conversion factor to prevent significant annual payment cuts and secure inflationary updates for Medicare clinicians. The coalition is united in stressing the need for a Medicare Economic Index-based inflationary update to the MPFS, to at the very least allow payments to keep pace with the true cost of operating a medical practice.