Why Advocacy/Basics

“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re probably on the menu.” -Unknown

ASES has led from the front in Political Advocacy. Now, more than ever, we have a responsibility to our patients and our profession to help inform and influence politicians regarding medical and surgical care for patients and the healthcare industry. Physicians and Surgeons need to be leading this charge from the front. 

Over the last several decades, we have witnessed significant declines in healthcare standards, access to care, physician and patient autonomy, and reimbursement. Many factors have played into this including, but not limited to:

• Unfavorable legislation in 1990s tying healthcare reimbursement to inflation for facilities, but not to physicians 
• Consolidation and Cannibalization of Health organizations
• Vertical and Horizontal integration of Health Insurance Companies – publicly traded, for-profit entities with a single goal to maximize profitability (not focused on patient care)
• Burdensome Legislation for Medical Providers requiring increased hospital administration costs to maintain practices
• Unfavorable legislation through the Stark Law and Affordable Care Act limiting physicians ability to have ownership in hospitals and ancillary services that could help offload increase costs in running practices
• Inability to collectively bargain as physicians to provide pressure on insurance companies to reimburse fairly
• Insurance company prior authorization hurdles
• Health insurance companies manipulation of Medicare Advantage programs to leach money from government programs and maximize profit