ACEP senior leadership recently attended the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT) meeting. The group discussed achieving greater involvement in the Trauma Center Verification Program. Also discussed was a revision of the REBOA statement.

ACEP participated in a small meeting of several medical specialty associations with America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and several private payers to discuss how to expand access to non-opioid treatments and other pain management strategies to address chronic low back pain.

ACEP was invited to participate in a meeting at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on drug compounding. The FDA was seeking input from physician groups, and ACEP member Craig Manifold, DO, FACEP, and ACEP staff Jeff Davis attended to provide the emergency medicine prospective.

ACEP led an effort to convene and draft a group response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) request for information on price transparency included in the annual Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule, which specifically asked for input on out-of-network and surprise bills, including those from emergency care. Eleven medical associations and organization, in addition to ACEP, participated and signed onto the letter.

The congressional drug shortage letter to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, which ACEP developed, and ACEP Leadership & Advocacy Conference attendees asked their members of Congress to sign onto, closed with 107 House representatives and 31 Senators signed on—over a quarter of the entire Congress. ACEP also worked with The New York Times on a story it ran on the drug shortage issue, which referenced ACEP’s drug shortage survey as well as the congressional letter.

As part of ACEP’s continuing Leader Visit Program, Jay Kaplan, MD, FACEP, of University Medical Center in New Orleans; Abhi Mehrotra, MD, MBA, FACEP, of the University of North Carolina; and Scott Zeller, MD, of Vituity met with several key members of the House and Senate to discuss innovative approaches to treating patients with emergency mental health conditions that provide access to more timely, appropriate care and have been shown to reduce psychiatric boarding times in the emergency department as well as hospital inpatient stays. The members of Congress and congressional offices they met with are Rep. Mike Burgess (R-TX), Rep. Janet Napolitano (D-CA), Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Rep. Raul Ruiz, MD (D-CA), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).

ACEP and the Medical Association of Georgia filed suit against Anthem’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia in federal court in an effort to compel the insurance giant to rescind its controversial and dangerous emergency care policy that retroactively denies coverage for emergency patients. To read the lawsuit, visit newsroom.acep.org.

ACEP, the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Physicians, the American Osteopathic Association, the American College of Medical Toxicology, the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors, the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine joined together to support the introduction of federal legislation to protect emergency physicians’ right to due process in the workplace if they are employed by a third party. The bipartisan bill, introduced by Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) and Rep. Raul Ruiz, MD (D-CA), would preserve the ability of emergency physicians to strongly advocate for patients by avoiding the mandatory waiver of due process rights that many emergency physicians are forced to comply with as a condition of employment. See more about this at newsroom.acep.org.

ACEP and senior leadership of Centers for Clinical Standards and Quality met to discuss ACEP’s Quality Measures and ongoing support for Clinical Emergency Data Registry (CEDR). This meeting was very encouraging. CMS provided collaboration support and guidance for measure harmonization and validation for 2018 approved measures and 2019 proposed measures and agreed to provide two speakers for ACEP’s July webinar on quality and CEDR.