About this newsletter
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The ACP Advocate is an e-newsletter, edited by the College's Washington, DC governmental affairs division, created to provide you, our members, with succinct news about public policy issues affecting internal medicine and patient care. To learn more about ACP's Advocacy and to access the ACP Advocate archives, go to www.acponline.org/advocacy.
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Welcome to The ACP Advocate.
In this issue you’ll find out what ACP’s new president, Joseph W. Stubbs, MD, FACP, has been doing to advocate for internists in Washington. Also, we cover the latest developments surrounding the Patient Centered Medical Home.
In late breaking news, this week Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) introduced the Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act of 2009 (H.R. 2350). This bill, based largely on ACP policies, is designed to help reverse the growing shortage of primary care physicians by increasing payments to internists and other primary care physicians, providing scholarships and loan forgiveness, and making the Patient Centered Medical Home a permanent covered benefit under Medicare. As a sign of the support that primary care has in Congress, the bill already has 86 cosponsors. We will tell you more about the bill in the June 5 edition of The ACP Advocate. In the meantime, you can learn more about it and whether your member of Congress has signed on through ACP's Legislative Action Center.
I hope to see some of you in Washington next week at ACP Services’ Leadership Day, where ACP members will be meeting with congressional offices to present our ideas to them. Look for coverage of the event in our next issue.
For even more about health care reform and other health policy issues, check out my blog, The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty. I hope you’ll join me to discuss ACP’s efforts in guiding health care reform.
And, as always, please send your feedback and suggestions on this newsletter to: TheACPAdvocate@acponline.org.
Yours truly,
Bob Doherty
Senior Vice President
Governmental Affairs and Public Policy
American College of Physicians
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In the news
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New ACP President Presses Primary Care Agenda |
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Stubbs urges 'Blue Dogs' to look beyond Part B for funding
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With health reform in the offing, Dr. Joseph W. Stubbs, the newly minted president of the American College of Physicians, wasted little time making the rounds in Washington, D.C., and pressing the group's health policy agenda.
Just days after ... » Click to read the full article
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In focus
ACP Fellows Appointed to HIT Standards Committee by HHS
Last week HHS announced members of the federal government’s new Health Information Technology (HIT) Standards Committee. Among the members are James Walker, MD, FACP, chair of ACP’s Medical Informatics Subcommittee (MISC) and J. Marc Overhage, MD, PhD, FACP, a member of the MISC. The federal advisory committee is being formed to make recommendations to the National Coordinator for HIT about standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria. Their first meeting is being held today in Washington. |
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