As a surgeon advocate within your state, the ACS Division of Advocacy and Health Policy (DAHP) needs your immediate assistance to help garner additional opposition to legislation moving through the U.S. Senate, the Lower Health Care Costs Act of 2019 which seeks to address unanticipated/surprise medical billing.

Recently, this issue has garnered much public attention, and has risen to the level of congressional action. While the ACS continues to work with Congress to propose meaningful solutions to address this issue, the College needs your help in opposing this legislation introduced by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA).

This legislation includes a federally benchmarked payment rate tied to the in-network median rate to resolve the issue of surprise billing and excludes a fair Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process.
 

Let Us Amplify Your Voice!

A sample email message has been crafted for you and will take less than 2 minutes to send via SurgeonsVoice    If you prefer, you may also send a traditional letter.  A sample is available for you.

As the Governor Liaison to the ACS Legislative Committee, I would like to report that the Committee has had a busy year thus far, with ongoing developments regarding multiple issues, the most salient of which are highlighted in this newsletter.

You can help these causes not only by writing your Congressional Delegates, but also by becoming active at the State level within the New York Chapter of the ACS. Please be an ACS Advocate, even if only at your local government level: truly it can make a difference-or rather, should I say, YOU can make a difference. Best wishes to all for a happy and safe July 4th.

Anthony J. Vine, MD, FACS
Asst. Clinical Professor of Surgery,
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, NY, NY
Laparoscopic Surgical Center of NY

Enclosed is this newsletter:

• 2019 New York Legislative Recap
• Supporting the Chapter's SurgeonPAC
• Surgical Specific Issues (At-a-Glance) Addressed this Year
• House of Medicine Highlights and Achievements