Just after midnight, the U.S. Senate approved S. 610, the "Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act," which ACEP helped develop with Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Todd Young (R-IN), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and was one of ACEP's key issues discussed on Capitol Hill during LAC21 last week.
Senate passage comes on the heels of ACEP's congressional fly-in where 324 ACEP members conducted 287 congressional meetings with lawmakers from 44 states. The legislation is named in honor of Lorna Breen, MD, FACEP, an ACEP member who died by suicide in April 2020 after being overwhelmed by the influx of COVID-19 cases in New York City.
Dr. Lorna Breen
It also follows our successful efforts to secure $140 million in funding for the bill earlier this year as part of the American Rescue Plan and the subsequent grant distribution announcement by HRSA of those funds on July 16.
In addition to providing direction to HRSA about how the grant programs should be conducted and overseen, S. 610/H.R. 1667 would require HHS to conduct a study and develop policy recommendations on:
Preventing burnout and improving mental and behavioral health among health care providers
Removing barriers to accessing care and treatment (including consideration of stigma and licensing concerns)
Identifying strategies to promote resiliency
S.610 now has 29 cosponsors - adding as a result of your advocacy at LAC Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) , and we were told by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) earlier this week that he intended to cosponsor as well - and its House counterpart (H.R. 1667) now has 111 cosponsors - adding Reps. Jim Langevin (D-RI), Jim Cooper (D-TN), Mark Amodei (R-NV), Dean Phillips (D-MN), and emergency physician Raul Ruiz, MD (D-CA) after LAC.
We are currently working with the bill sponsors in the House to urge consideration of H.R. 1667 this fall when Congress returns after the August recess. We thank our 911 Network members for responding to our action alerts and will call on you to help us keep up the noise again to get this across the finish line in the House.
