ACS Advocacy Brief: March 6, 2025

Urge Your Representatives to Support Surgical Priorities before Funding Deadline

Government funding is currently set to expire on March 14, leaving Congress with an immediate deadline to pass a spending bill. The ACS is monitoring negotiations and continuing to advocate for priorities, including Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) reauthorization, the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act, a Medicare payment cut fix for CY2025 (see below article), and more. 

As lawmakers are negotiating what gets included in this package, your unique, expert perspective as a surgeon can make a difference on these issues that directly impact patient care and the wellbeing of healthcare workers. Visit SurgeonsVoice to make your voice heard by taking action on the College’s priority issues. Letters are pre-written for quick access and use.

ACS Partners in Coalition Effort to Reverse Medicare Cuts

The ACS recently signed a letter urging Congressional leadership to address the recent 2.83% cut to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) conversion factor that went into effect in January.

When adjusted for inflation, Medicare payments have declined by more than 30% since 2001. 

Specifically, this letter has asked Congressional leadership to cosponsor and support passage of the bipartisan Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act. This bill, introduced by Representatives Greg Murphy, MD (R-NC), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Mariannette Miller-Meeks, MD (R-IA), and Kim Schrier, MD (D-WA), along with several other bipartisan House members, prospectively stops the current payment cut and helps account for rising inflationary costs with a 2% payment adjustment, equivalent to roughly half of the Medicare Economic Index for 2025. 

This letter, signed by physician and non-physician organizations representing more than 1 million clinicians and the patients that they serve, urges Congressional leadership to include the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act in the upcoming government funding legislation.

Advocacy Summit Promises Surgeon Training, Engagement Opportunities on Capitol Hill

The annual ACS Leadership & Advocacy Summit, April 5–8 in Washington, DC, is a dual meeting that provides a functional education on surgical leadership and making your voice heard by policymakers. For US based surgeons with an interest in making a difference outside the halls of their hospitals, the Advocacy Summit in particular offers opportunities for honing the skills needed to promote the ACS’s legislation priorities and put the skills to use.

Beginning the evening of Sunday, April 6, with a Keynote Address by Margaret Brennan, moderator of Face the Nation on CBS News, the network’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, and a contributing correspondent for 60 Minutes, the Advocacy Brief provides a full day of informative panel, training, and programming on April 7. Topics to be explored include “Changing Healthcare Landscape at the Payor, Physician, and Employer Levels,” “Digital Transformation and Evolving Surgery Policy,” and more.

On April 8, attendees will have the chance to visit with legislators on Capitol Hill to promote an evolving agenda, and ACS staff will share key ACS priorities that surgeons can use to guide their conversations.

Preceding the Advocacy Summit, the Leadership Summit includes 2 days of programming covering an in-depth exploration of leadership principles and offers compelling speakers addressing key topics in surgical leadership.

Read a comprehensive Summit preview in the March Bulletin for more information.

Housing Deadline for Summitt Is March 13

The housing deadline for the Leadership & Advocacy Summitt is next Thursday, March 13. Make sure to capitalize on the special rate in the ACS room block before it fills up. The Summit will be at the Grant Hyatt Washington, and the room rate is $329 per night plus taxes and a $20 daily destination fee.

Make Your Room Reservation

From Proposal to Policy: Watch Surgeon Advocate Describe “Regular Order” and Congressional Procedure

The process of how a piece of introduced legislation is eventually signed into law—including laws that are priorities or impactful for the ACS and surgeons—is complex, but also important for surgeon advocates to understand.  Watch Jason P. Wilson, MD, MBA, CPE, FACS, the 2023 ACS Advocate of Year, provide an overview of Congressional procedure and outline how a bill moves through regular order to become a law in an introduction to the Advocacy 101 video series. Additional videos will be added in the coming weeks.