Workforce
Contact: Matt Coffron, mcoffron@facs.org
or Dana Halvorson, dhalvorson@facs.org
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Funding for the NIH is of critical importance to the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. The College, working with the One Voice Against Cancer (OVAC) coalition, asked members of the House and Senate to express their support of a funding request of $32 billion for NIH for FY2013 by signing on to letters to House and Senate appropriators. The letters stressed the importance of medical research in medical innovation and United States competitiveness. They also highlighted the role of NIH in job creation and economic growth. In sum, 153 members of the House signed on in support of NIH funding along with 49 in the Senate. Both letters were bipartisan.
View a copy of the House letter (1280K PDF)
View a copy of the Senate letter (2650K PDF)
Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education (CHGME)
Letters were circulated in both Chambers in bipartisan support of funding in fiscal year 2013 for the CHGME program. The program is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration, and provides federal funds to the nation’s freestanding children's hospitals to help them maintain their GME programs that train resident physicians. The number of pediatric surgical specialists today is inadequate to meet the needs of our children. In fact, according to analysis done by the ACS Health Policy Research Institute and the American Association of Medical Colleges, in 2008, there was only 1 pediatric surgeon per 100,000 children in the United States. CHGME is a critical investment in America’s medical future to ensure that children will have continuing access to quality health care.
View the letter to the House of Representatives (365K PDF)
View the letter to the Senate (685K PDF)
2011
ACS and the Surgical Community Oppose Cuts to GME
On Thursday June 14th, The American College of Surgeons along with 18 other surgical organizations sent a letter to the President and Congressional leadership in opposition to cuts to Graduate Medical Education (GME). The letter, sent in response to proposals to reduce investments in GME as part of deficit reduction proposals, notes that reduced federal support would only intensify projected shortages in surgery and other specialties.
ACS offers support for the “Medical Practice Freedom Act of 2011” (H.R. 969)
On May 2, 2011, the ACS sent a letter to Rep. Thomas E. Price, MD, FACS expressing the College’s support for the “Medical Practice Freedom Act of 2011” (H.R. 969). The Medical Practice Freedom Act would prohibit the Secretary of Health and Human Services or any state from requiring that a physician or other health care provider participate in any health plan as a condition of licensure.
Click here to view the letter (180K PDF)
Revised April 23, 2012