patients will be impacted by Medicare pAYMENT CUTS
Preventing cuts to Medicare physician payment remains a top ACS advocacy priority as another round of significant cuts (nearly 8.5%) looms. Without congressional action, effective January 1, 2023, proposed cuts could once again impact patient access to surgical care. With no mechanism in place to bring payment levels to the current cost of providing care, these compounding negative financial factors facing those who treat Medicare patients co-exist amid historically high inflation.
As evidenced by record-breaking 2020-2021 efforts, grassroots advocacy works and remains essential to stopping the cuts.
ACS chapter involvement in the coming months will be essential. Be sure to write (and beginning 9/14, call) your lawmakers to inform them how the cuts impact you and your patients. ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy staff is eager to help. For questions or assistance, contact DAHP staff at ahp@facs.org.
ACS State Legislative Tracking Dashboard
Take a look at the ACS dashboard of bills and issues that we are tracking in Virginia. This is a live link with links to other issue specific dashboards that will update as new bills are added or bills move along the process.
State advocacy resources
Participating in advocacy activities can seem a bit confusing, especially if surgeons have never done so. Questions arise as to how to do it, what to say, and where further information may be obtained on numerous state legislative and regulatory issues of interest. To learn about the many facets of grassroots advocacy, and to utilize the plethora of web-based information on state-related issues, check out the following.
Surgeons as Advocates: A SurgeonsVoice Handbook for Advocacy
A Guide to In-District Meetings
Tracking Legislation
State Legislation Tracked by the College
State Grassroots Advocacy on SurgeonsVoice
