Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits
Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits
Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.
Dr. Turner Testifies before Senate Finance Committee on Medicare Physician Payment
The Senate Finance Committee heard testimony on April 11 about “Bolstering Chronic Care through Medicare Physician Payment.”
ACS Executive Director & CEO Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, was among those who offered testimony and answered questions from committee members.
During the testimony, Dr. Turner underscored some of the challenges surgeons face because of a lack of inflationary updates and continued reductions in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare payments, as well as the harm these cuts are doing to patients who deserve access to quality surgical care. She said now is the time to act.
“To create stability in the Medicare physician payment system, Congress should immediately address cuts already expected in 2025,” Dr. Turner advised, recommending implementation of positive annual updates reflecting the inflation in practice costs. “Under current law, and assuming no additional cuts result from budget neutrality or other policy decisions, it would take decades for the physician fee schedule conversion factor to return to the same amount it was in the year 2000. The implementation of positive annual updates to the conversion factor reflecting the inflation in practice costs is an essential step necessary to enhance patient access to care and improve quality.”
She added that the ACS and surgeons writ large are committed to working with Congress to ensure the stability of the Medicare FFS system through both short- and long-term policy improvement. She urged a transition to value-based care and improving the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, as well as highlighted how the ACS has set the standard for high-quality evidence-based surgical care through its 13 quality programs.
Dr. Turner’s testimony is the latest in the ACS’s continued efforts to aggressively fight for surgeons and for providing the highest-quality care to surgical patients.
The ACS will not stop demanding anything short of a complete overhaul of the Medicare payment system.
You can help amplify the call by taking part in ACS surgeon advocacy efforts. See a listing of ways you can contribute through SurgeonsVoice.
If you have questions about the process, contact the Division of Advocacy and Health Policy at ahp@facs.org.
Leadership & Advocacy Summit
Expand Your Advocacy Impact by Attending Upcoming Summit
The ACS Leadership & Advocacy Summit is this weekend, taking place at The Westin Washington, DC Downtown hotel, April 13–16. This dual meeting offers a comprehensive program designed to enhance surgeon leadership skills and provides interactive advocacy training with coordinated, in-person visits to Congressional offices.
The Advocacy Summit begins Sunday night with a welcome reception and keynote dinner featuring Anna Palmer, co-founder and CEO of Punchbowl News, a membership-based organization offering Washington insider news and analyses.
On Monday, a full day of presentations will include panels on how to advance the ACS agenda in a divided Congress, and on artificial intelligence and healthcare policy. Attendees will head to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for meetings with members of Congress and their staff advisors.
The Advocacy Summit portion is in-person only and for US-based ACS members only. Registration fees are based on member type.
ACS Bulletin
Physician Workforce Data Suggest Epochal Change
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recently released the 2023 US Physician Workforce Data Dashboard, the organization’s latest dataset on the medical workforce. The dashboard provides detailed data, current to December 31, 2022, on active physicians in all practice specialties with more than 2,500 active physicians.
As with previous AAMC reports, this data release combines US Census and AAMC information with the American Medical Association Physician Professional Data™—a historical database of the education and professional certifications of more than 1.4 million physicians.
In its 2021 report, the AAMC quantified the supply of surgeons across all surgical disciplines in 2019 at 152,700. It also projected a shortage by 2034 of 15,800 to 30,200 surgeons relative to demand, a large part of a shortfall of 37,800 to 124,000 physicians overall in the same period. In a just-released 2024 report, the AAMC updated the total projected shortage to 13,500 to 86,000 physicians by 2036, including a predicted shortfall of 10,000 to 19,900 surgeons (in other words, as much as 74% of the total).
Other articles in the issue include the management of uncomplicated acute appendicitis, surgeon and radiologist collaboration, maximizing the use of donor organs, and more.
State of Washington Enacts Law Mandating Bleeding Control Equipment in Schools
A new law in the State of Washington will require bleeding control kits in schools, beginning with the 2026–2027 school year. The legislation also includes other measures to greatly help communities respond to bleeding emergencies. The bill, Senate Bill 5790, was signed on March 29 by Governor Jay Inslee (D).
The law is the result of years of collaboration and advocacy efforts from multiple groups and organizations across the state, including members of the ACS Committee on Trauma (COT), ACS Washington State Chapter, Washington State COT Chapter, emergency medicine personnel and nurses, and the University of Washington, as well as the testimony of students and educators in school districts across the state. In enacting the law, the state of Washington joins 13 other states that have similar bills to increase access to life-saving education and tools that can help people recognize and respond to bleeding emergencies.
Uncontrolled bleeding from trauma is a major cause of preventable death for people of all ages across the country, including in the state of Washington. Someone with a severe bleeding injury can die within minutes without proper intervention. Using customized training materials developed with input from trauma surgeons as well as multiple emergency medicine specialties, the ACS STOP THE BLEED® program teaches the public how to recognize a severe bleeding injury and follow three simple steps after calling 911: apply pressure with hands, pack the wound with gauze or clothing, and/or apply a tourniquet.
Introduced by State Senator Manka Dhingra, the bill mandates that schools in the State of Washington maintain easily accessible bleeding control equipment on each school campus for use in case of traumatic injuries involving blood loss. Schools also must ensure that a minimum of two employees are trained in bleeding control, with larger schools requiring additional trained employees based on student population (one for every additional 500). Additional provisions of the bill require annual inspections of bleeding control equipment inventory and storing specific items such as tourniquets, compression bandages, gloves, markers, scissors, and instructional documents on blood loss prevention methods.
Check out the April ACS Bulletin article highlighting a Special Session at the COT 2024 Annual Meeting in March that featured a sneak peek at an upcoming version of the STOP THE BLEED didactic course (in-person and virtual) and outlined opportunities for expanding the program, including a new branding strategy.
Coding Workshops
Register Now for Coding Courses in Newport Beach
With Medicare and third-party payor policy and coding changes taking effect in 2024, it is imperative that surgeons and their coding staff have accurate, up-to-date information to protect physician reimbursement and optimize efficiency. The next in-person ACS/KZA Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding course, June 21–22, in Newport Beach, California, can help.
Ideally located near John Wayne Airport, this hotel offers effortless access to the University of California, Irvine; Fashion Island; and Disneyland. The special rate—$195 per night, plus tax—is good through Thursday, May 30.
To reserve your room, call 949-476-2001 (Event Name: KZA Meeting)
Course Information
Session #1: 2024 Spotlight on E/M and Office Procedure for the General Surgeon | Friday, June 21, 8:00 am–4:00 pm
Participants will learn how to properly apply elements of medical decision-making when selecting levels of evaluation and management (E/M) codes; correctly use E/M modifiers; identify key issues in nonphysician practitioner and critical care billing; and accurately code and document common office procedures.
Session #2: Mastering General Surgery Coding and RVU Optimization | Saturday, June 22, 8:00 am–4:00 pm
Attendees will learn how to select correct codes (including new 2024 CPT codes) for common general surgery procedures; recognize the impact of modifiers on global periods and reimbursement; identify areas for improvement in surgical documentation; and manage pre-certification and pre-authorization.
