In March 2026, ACEP launched Built on Results, a sweeping new storytelling campaign to highlight ACEP’s advocacy wins for emergency medicine. The campaign debuted in March with an 18-episode podcast series and a landing page at acep.org/results. It offers a look at ACEP’s wins at the national and state levels, as well as the work taking place to help emergency physicians do their jobs.

What follows is a preview of the defining policy victories featured in the podcast series’ initial run. Episodes feature ACEP members and leading advocates who had major roles in victories for physician autonomy, workplace safety, boarding, insurer bad behavior, and more priority topics.

“You can’t be a one-trick pony as an organization these days. Our members care about a lot of different issues,” said ACEP President L. Anthony Cirillo, MD, FACEP. Through its comprehensive advocacy strategy, ACEP tackles every major policy issue, and through Built on Results, members learn exactly how victories happen.

Moving forward, Built on Results will be ACEP’s year-round multimedia chronicle of advocacy in action, spotlighting new wins as they happen, elevating the voices of the emergency physicians driving change, and demonstrating how ACEP advocacy produces real impact on the issues emergency physicians care about most. Members can access the podcasts, infographics, and other resources anytime at acep.org/results.

Fighting for Physician-Led Care

Many state legislators are debating the expansion of remote or unsupervised practice by nurse practitioners and physician assistants—a proposal ACEP firmly opposes. In January 2026, ACEP strengthened its policy on physician-led care and continues to assert that an emergency physician should be onsite leading care in every emergency department in the country.

ACEP advocates are putting that policy in motion, successfully defending physician-led care. Built on Results episode 2, “A Red Sign Should Mean Something,” features ACEP President-Elect Ryan Stanton, MD, FACEP, discussing work in Kentucky to prevent legislation that would have weakened physician oversight.

“Over 80 percent of those surveyed in Kentucky expect and want to be cared for by a physician in the emergency department,” said Dr. Stanton.

In episode 4, “Patient Safety Carries the Day,” South Carolina College of Emergency Physicians (SCCEP) Past President Kat Moore, MD, FACEP, said patient-first messaging resonated with legislators in South Carolina to help pass a law requiring physicians onsite in emergency departments.

“I always try to treat every single patient like I would want somebody to treat my mother… and I would want to make sure that she went to an emergency department that had a physician there who knew how to manage whatever she was there for,” Dr. Moore said.

The series also examines ACEP’s work to defend emergency medicine’s role in setting and raising emergency care standards.

In episode 15, “We Can Do Better,” Dr. Cirillo explains ACEP’s pushback against sepsis guidelines developed without meaningful emergency physician input.

“As a specialty now for 47 years, we know what we need to do to staff an emergency department safely and appropriately,” Dr. Cirillo said.

Confronting the Boarding Crisis

Boarding remains a real danger to patients with negative impacts on the health care system. Episode 3, “The Root of Many Troubles,” profiles ACEP efforts to push lawmakers and regulators to recognize boarding as a national public health crisis in need of systemic solutions. Jesse Pines, MD, FACEP, highlights ACEP advocacy that includes the ACEP-developed federal legislation that aims to increase

hospital data and transparency, the Advancing Boarding and Crowding in the Emergency Department (ABC-ED) Act.

“Emergency physicians would be having better day-to-day operations if we were to address this issue,” said Dr. Pines.

Addressing Violence in the ED

Violence against health care workers is rising, with many emergency physicians facing near-daily threats or assaults. Three episodes cover how ACEP is working to change that reality. They showcase state-level victories by ACEP’s Ohio and New York chapters to strengthen hospital security and improve workplace violence incident reporting, as well as ACEP’s national push to enact the Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act, a bill that would make willful assault of a health care worker a federal crime.

These wins “should be encouraging to other chapters to move forward with workplace violence protections,” said New York ACEP President Jeffrey Rabrich, DO, MBA, FACEP.

Protecting Physician Mental Health

The pressures of emergency medicine often last long after the shift ends. Physicians on the frontlines increasingly suffer from lasting stress and burnout.

Episode 8, “Lorna’s Legacy,” explains how ACEP helped write and pass the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, landmark federal legislation that has provided $100 million toward mental health and well-being support for physicians and health care workers.

“To have her name associated with the first federal law that creates programs to support others, I think she would be delighted,” said Corey Feist, JD, MBA, Dr. Breen’s brother-in-law, and CEO of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation.

Pushing Back Against Insurers and Corporate Medicine

The growing influence of corporations and insurance companies in health care undermines patient care and physician autonomy.

Two episodes focus on state wins against corporate influence in medicine, highlighting laws the Oregon and California ACEP chapters helped pass to prohibit corporate practice ownership structures in their respective states.

“It’s not really about winning or losing in advocacy. It’s about ‘Are we making good changes for our patients and our communities?’” said California ACEP Vice President Kamara Graham, MD, FACEP.

Episode 14, “Good Law, Bad Behavior,” explores ACEP’s ongoing push to hold insurers accountable for unlawful actions and fix the flaws in the implementation of the No Surprises Act, the ACEP-backed federal law to protect patients from unexpected medical bills.

“As long as we have strong enforcement in hand, we have a lot of optimism about the spirit of the law that was passed years ago,” said ACEP Reimbursement Committee Chair Lisa Maurer, MD, FACEP.

The series also highlights how ACEP is protecting emergency physicians’ workplace rights by working to ban non-compete clauses in physician contracts and protect physicians’ due process rights.

“We’re advocating for the things that really matter to individual people,” said ACEP Board Member Daniel Freess, MD, FACEP.

Ms. Enser is the public relations and content manager for ACEP.