ACEP Leaders Meet with DOJ Antitrust Department

ACEP President Aisha T. Terry, MD, MPH, FACEP, ACEP Executive Director & CEO  Susan Sedory, MA, CAE, and Senior Vice President of Advocacy & Practice Affairs Laura Wooster met in December with Jonathan Kanter, the United States Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust and with other key Department of Justice staff to discuss the growing negative impact of insurer consolidation on emergency physicians and the patients who trust us with their care.

This focus on insurer consolidation broadens ACEP’s recent advocacy efforts with the Federal Trade Commission on hospital and physician consolidation, non-competes, and corporatization of medicine.

In the meeting, ACEP raised concerns about the impact on clinical decision making and physician autonomy brought about by vertical consolidation from insurers who directly employ physicians. ACEP also discussed the rapidly diminishing leverage that emergency physician groups have during contract negotiations, as insurance companies have acquired increasing market share via consolidation. Discussions also involved implementation of the No Surprises Act.

ACEP will continue to work with the DOJ on these and other related issues so emergency physicians can maintain and protect their professional autonomy, thrive in supportive and fair practice environments, and provide high-quality emergency care to their patients.

Be Prepared for All Pediatric Challenges

Whether you want to brush up on your pediatric EM skills or take your dual-boarded training to the next level, the Advanced Pediatric EM Assembly helps you be prepared for any pediatric patient you may treat. Live and in person for the first time in three years, the PEM Assembly is part of this year’s ACEP Accelerate, where you can fuel your future with four different, professional, enhancing tracks, including the ED Director’s Academy and the Reimbursement and Coding Conferences. Learn more at acep.org/accelerate.

New Point-of-Care Tool on RA Now Available

A rheumatoid arthritis point-of-care tool can help you identify symptoms, treatment and outpatient referrals of a condition you may not always see in the ED. It’s the latest resource in ACEP’s point-of-care toolset, designed to transform care at the bedside. The specialty’s top experts and thought leaders helped develop these algorithm-based online tools for easy access to both common and rare presentations. Download the ACEP app for your devices or use the web-based version online on acep.org/poctools.

Member Benefit: LLSA Prep is FREE

Included with your ACEP membership, this year’s Literature Review in Critical Decisions offers brief summaries of select articles on the 2024 Lifelong Learning and Self-Assessment reading lists. Also in ACEP’s Maintenance of Certification Center, you’ll find quick access to all the articles on the reading lists for EM as well as the subspecialty boards. Discover more at acep.org/MOC.

New Quality Podcast Now Available

Learn about new quality innovations with a variety of EM experts by subscribing to ACEP’s newest podcast—Qual-ED: Exploring Quality in Emergency Care. The inaugural episode introduces Quality Improvement leaders Arjun Venkatesh, MD, FACEP, and Kori Zachrison, MD, FACEP, who discuss findings from past years of the E-QUAL project’s stroke initiative. Look for “Qual-ED” in your preferred podcast platform.