ACP advocates with Congress on a multitude of diverse issues important to internal medicine physicians, subspecialists and medical students. Below are key areas of advocacy engagement that explain ACP’s position and, where appropriate, provide options for member engagement with Congress.
Reduce Prescription Drug Costs
Exorbitant drug prices deny patients access to life-enhancing medicines and result in higher out-of-pocket costs, premiums, and taxes. ACP is advocating for greater transparency in drug pricing, the elimination of anti-competitive industry practices that create barriers to generics coming to market, the importance of accounting for value in payment and coverage for prescriptions, and providing authority to the federal government to negotiate drug discounts under the Medicare Part D program.
2016 Position paper: Stemming the Escalating Cost of Prescription Drugs
Action Alert: Advocate with members of Congress
Fund Federal Primary Care Workforce, Medical Research, Public Health Initiatives
ACP is advocating for vital federal programs/initiatives designed to support primary care and ensure an adequate physician workforce, including Title VII Health Professions grants and the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). Equally important is the need to fund essential health services and medical research by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and public health programs supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Funding priorities for FY2019 as submitted to congressional appropriators
Reduce Unnecessary Administrative Tasks on Physicians and Patients
The complexity of the U.S. healthcare system has resulted in an excessive amount of unnecessary administrative tasks imposed on both physicians and patients. These administrative tasks divert physicians’ time and focus away from providing high-value care. ACP is helping to reduce excessive administrative tasks that negatively impact physicians and their patients, including: streamlining the “prior authorization” process, better integrating clinical data into clinicians’ electronic health records (EHRs), and working with CMS in their effort to overhaul clinical documentation guidelines.
ACP’s “Patients Before Paperwork” Initiative
Continue to Address the Epidemic of Opioid Use
While progress has been made, ACP is calling for a sustained effort to increase funding and expand access to prevention, education, treatment and recovery efforts designed to combat the opioid epidemic in this country.
Joint principles of six front line physician organizations on addressing the opioid epidemic
Reduce Firearms-Related Injury and Death
Firearms-related violence is a significant public health threat that is now sadly a daily occurrence, costing over 38,000 fatalities every year in the U.S. and 81,000 non-fatal injuries to survivors of shootings. ACP is calling on lawmakers to strengthen the criminal background check system, ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, prevent the unlawful transfer of firearms to those who cannot legally purchase them, and remove restrictions on, and provide dedicated funding for, research by federal agencies on prevention of firearms-related injuries and death.
2018 position paper: Reducing Firearm Injuries and Deaths in the United States
Action Alert: Advocate with members of Congress
Improve Graduate Medical Education (GME)
GME, the process by which graduated medical students progress to become competent practitioners in a particular field of medicine, is the very life blood that provides this nation with its physician workforce. The federal government is the largest explicit provider of GME funding (over $15 billion annually), with the majority of support coming from Medicare. ACP is working to reform GME to prioritize funding toward physician specialties where millions of patients lack access, including internal medicine specialists trained in comprehensive primary care; to improve transparency; to ensure that enough physicians are being trained with the skills needed to treat an aging population with multiple chronic diseases; and to ensure sustainable and broadly supported funding by all payers going forward.
Joint position paper from ACP and the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine: Financing U.S. Graduate Medical Education
Action Alert: Advocate with members of Congress
