Come together in person in Washington, DC for ACEP's Leadership & Advocacy Conference (LAC) from May 1-3, 2022. Celebrate emergency medicine's accomplishments and continue to work for a better political environment for your specialty and your patients. First-timers to the conference will be trained to educate Members of Congress while seasoned participants will build upon your already-valuable Congressional connections.

We'll tackle problems facing our specialty and patients, develop tools to advocate at all levels, and build relationships with your Members of Congress - all while having a good time in our nation's Capitol!

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, registrants will be traveling to Capitol Hill on the afternoon of May 3 for in person meetings with legislators and staff.   

Click here for more information and to register.

This week, the House and Senate passed a $1.5 trillion omnibus appropriations package for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2022, providing federal funding for all government agencies until September 30, 2022. Passage of this omnibus now opens up the FY23 appropriations process, which is expected to begin in earnest in the next month.

The omnibus measure came together after months of often tense negotiations between appropriators. Among the high-level provisions are $782 billion in defense spending, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and additional military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine in their efforts to fend off the Russian invasion. The omnibus had also included a $15.6 billion supplemental COVID-19 funding measure; however, there was significant opposition from Democratic members in the House as the measure was offset by taking other COVID-19 funds that had been slated to go to several states. As a result, House leadership stripped the provision from the bill and now hope to pass a less controversial, restructured COVID-19 assistance package next week as a standalone bill.

The legislation also includes an extension of the existing telehealth flexibilities provided under the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). The package will continue to waive the geographic and originating site requirements for Medicare coverage of telehealth services for an additional 151 days after the PHE ends - most likely extending the flexibilities through the end of 2022.

The FY22 omnibus also included continued funding for a number of ACEP priorities, including:
- $6 million for the Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO) in the Emergency Department program
- $6 million for Sickle Cell Disease Research
- Firearm Injury & Mortality Prevention Research - $25 million ($12.5 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) each)
- Traumatic Brain Injury - $7.25 million
- Elderly falls - $2.05 million
- MISSION ZERO - $2 million

Like it or not, a wave of "highly focused" inspections conducted by the Occupational Safety Health Administration (OSHA) is coming. In an enforcement memo released last week, OSHA announced that it will engage in a three-month campaign (March 9 to June 9) to encourage hospitals and skilled nursing facilities that treat COVID-19 patients to take the "necessary steps to protect their workers against the hazards of COVID-19."
OSHA has instituted a series of COVID-19 safety measures throughout the pandemic. 

While ensuring that health care facilities are keeping their workers safe is important and a core responsibility of OSHA, some of you may be questioning the timing and appropriateness of these inspections. We also must consider the opportunity cost of OSHA's continued heightened focus on COVID-19. OSHA seems to be setting side other important priorities in order to solely focus on this one issue.  

Read the Regs & Eggs blog to find out more about OSHA's continued work on COVID-19 safety issues and what other critical areas, especially workplace violence, the agency is choosing not to focus on. 

The Biden Administration announced Tuesday their new nationwide Test to Treat initiative as part of the National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan. Through this program, people who visit hundreds of local pharmacy-based clinics and federally qualified community health centers and test positive can be prescribed antiviral pills by a healthcare provider on the spot. The Biden-Harris Administration has invested in several COVID-19 treatments, including two oral antiviral pills - Pfizer's Paxlovid and Merck's Molnupiravir - that can help prevent severe illness and hospitalization when taken soon after symptom onset.

Building upon the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response's (ASPR's) existing distribution of oral antivirals to thousands of locations across all states and territories, the Test to Treat initiative is part of a broader strategy to quickly connect eligible individuals who are at high risk of getting very sick from COVID-19 to appropriate treatments. ASPR will also launch a program for long-term care pharmacies to directly order these antivirals to facilitate increased access for eligible long-term care residents who are at increased risk for developing severe COVID-19.

"What Hollywood Gets Wrong about Washington"
ACEP has partnered with the Congressional Management Foundation to provide a series of advocacy webinars to help ACEP members better understand the workings of Congress and be effective advocates for emergency medicine and patients.  The first in the series is open to all 911 Network Members and NEMPAC Donors.  Future webinars will be available only to NEMPAC donors.  

What Hollywood Gets Wrong about Washington
Tuesday, March 15, 2022 
3:00 - 4:00 P.M. EDT 
Hollywood often portrays politicians as crass, self-interested egomaniacs who care more about their limo ride to the airport than their constituents. CMF's research and experience shows a different picture. In this informative and entertaining webinar, the presenter walks the audience through a series of movie clips that claim to portray Congress as it is - but in reality, massively distort the truth. And while it's fun to poke at politicians (who sometimes actually deserve it), the fictional portrayal of a government that ignores the needs of its citizenry has a depressing impact on public perception and participation in the policymaking process. By providing an accurate understanding of how Congress really works, the audience will hopefully feel a little more encouraged about our democratic institutions. 
Click here to register.

Join Rep. Schrier, a pediatrician and member of Congress, and your NEMPAC VIP colleagues for a discussion of health care policy and the current political environment leading up to the mid-term elections.  Rep. Schrier serves on the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee where she supports and advocates for many of ACEP's legislative priorities and is a cosponsor of several ACEP-supported bills in the 117th Congress. 
Date: March 23
Time: 6 p.m. ET

The Series is a special benefit for NEMPAC VIP Donors who will be receiving an invitation by email.  If you are not sure of your NEMPAC status, please contact Jeanne Slade, NEMPAC Director, at jslade@acep.org. You can also find out more on the NEMPAC website.