ACEP submitted its official response to a November 2018 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Task Force on drug shortages.  ACEP’s ongoing conversations with the FDA, are a testament to the effectiveness of advocacy by emergency physicians. During the 2018 Leadership & Advocacy Conference, emergency physicians urged legislators to ask the FDA to look into the root causes of drug shortages and deliver recommendations to Congress on how to fix these significant problems affecting patient care. These letters secured more than 100 bipartisan signatories in the House and more than 30 in the Senate. Only a few weeks later, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced the creation of this FDA Drug Shortage Task Force and made this issue one of his top priorities. Read the letter.

ACEP also recently responded to a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed rule that would revise current Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) managed care regulations. CMS is proposing to give states more flexibility when establishing network adequacy requirements that Medicaid managed care organizations must follow. ACEP’s response states that it has long advocated for CMS to enforce strong network adequacy standards in Medicaid managed care and that it strongly believes all Medicaid patients must have access to a full range of health care services. ACEP strongly recommends that CMS require states to include emergency physicians and other safety net providers in the list of provider types for which states are required to establish network adequacy standards. The letter can be found here.