Legislative Updates on Key Issues to keep you Informed from the State Affairs Team

STATE AFFAIRS WORKGROUP

Arnold Baskies, MD, FACS (NJ); Ali Kasraeian, MD, FACS (FL); Kevin Koo, MD, FACS (MN); David Santos, MD, FACS (TX); and Kelly Swords, MD, FACS (CA). The Workgroup plays a critical role in identifying state advocacy priorities, setting new policy objectives, and evaluating state advocacy grant applications among other duties.

ACS STATE AFFAIRS PRIORITY ISSUES

• Trauma System Funding and Development
• Cancer Screening, Testing, and Treatment
• Insurance and Administrative Burden
• Professional Liability
• Criminalization of Physician Care
• Access to Surgical Care
• Health Equity

IN THE NEWS

'Guilty until proven innocent': Inside the fight between doctors and insurance companies over 'downcoding'

Health insurers are automatically downcoding physician claims to a lower tier of reimbursement. Physicians must appeal each claim with documentation to defend their medical opinion. The practice of downcoding has taken off in the last few years as insurers used third party vendors and artificial intelligence programs to reduce costs. Read more here.

SCOTUS Hears Oral Arguments in Case Involving a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

— Issue revolves around whether state filing rules apply if a case is heard in federal court

The United States Supreme Court heard a case, Berk v. Choy, involving a Florida man who injured himself while in Delaware and sued the physician who treated him arguing the treatment made his condition worse.

Delaware law requires an affidavit to be filed from an expert stating there are reasonable grounds the defendant committed malpractice to bring a lawsuit. When the plaintiff tried to file his lawsuit in Delaware without the affidavit, the case was dismissed. The plaintiff then filed in federal court, which handles malpractice cases between parties in different states. The question before the court was whether the plaintiff still needs to comply with the affidavit rule to have the case heard in federal court. Read more here.

For more information regarding ACS State Affairs Policy Priorities in your state, please contact Catherine Hendricks, State Affairs Manager, at chendricks@facs.org  or Cory Bloom, State Affairs Associate, at cbloom@facs.org .

To view a complete list of bills ACS State Affairs is tracking, visit our online State Legislative Tracker: https://www.quorum.us/spreadsheet/external/QGjJBFIfORzJNAtlNvfp/