Encourage Your Legislators to Pass Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act to Safeguard Seniors’ Health

A recent federal report highlights the need for ACS-supported legislation that would improve access to timely care for Medicare Advantage (MA) patients.

The US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report indicating that MA organizations (MAOs) sometimes delayed or denied beneficiaries access to services. These postponements and denials occurred even when the requests met Medicare coverage requirements.

In addition, the report revealed that MAOs denied providers payment for some services that met both Medicare coverage rules and MAO billing rules. The OIG report highlights that denying requests that meet Medicare coverage rules may prevent or delay beneficiaries from receiving medically necessary care.

The findings of this report emphasize the need to streamline the MA prior authorization process and to bring more transparency and oversight to the MA program. 

Take action! Visit ACS SurgeonsVoice and urge Congress pass to this critical legislation.

For more information, contact Carrie Zlatos at czlatos@facs.org

There has never been a better time to spread the word to your patients, colleagues, and community about the importance of learning bleeding control techniques. May 19 is the fifth annual National STOP THE BLEED^® Day, which falls during the broader observance of National STOP THE BLEED^® Month. The ACS STOP THE BLEED^® program will boost efforts this month to get the public trained, engage with instructors to help spread the word, and share success stories and other news on its social media channels. Be sure to follow ACS STOP THE BLEED^® on Twitter and Facebook to stay informed.

More than 1.9 million people have completed the training course and are now prepared to control bleeding. This number includes individuals who have taken the full course in person, have taken the online interactive course, and have attended the online lecture portion of the course via Zoom.

The new online interactive course gives participants the knowledge they need to complete the lecture portion of the course. Participants are required to attend an in-person STOP THE BLEED^® course to complete the skills portion and receive their certificate of completion.

In addition to new training opportunities, more people can now become STOP THE BLEED^® course instructors, with nonmedical professionals now eligible to become a STOP THE BLEED^® instructor and educate their communities.

The ACS Brief will have more to share about STOP THE BLEED^® throughout the month.