ACEP Applauds Adoption of CMS Age-Friendly Hospital Measure

ACEP strongly applauded the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services when it introduced the Age-Friendly Hospital Measure in August as part of the fiscal year 2025 Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule. This measure, developed by ACEP in partnership with the American College of Surgeons and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, clarifies goals for those who work with older patients and incorporates important aspects of the ACEP Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA) framework into care delivery.

“The Age-Friendly Hospital Measure reshapes the way we care for older patients,” said Aisha Terry, MD, MPH, FACEP, President of ACEP. “ACEP is proud to collaborate with health care leaders at the highest levels to drive meaningful change that helps physicians, care teams and patients.”

Click the barcode to learn more about ACEP’s Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation.

A hospital’s score on the Age-Friendly Hospital measure is based on attestations across five domains. ACEP encouraged CMS to include attestations to reduce boarding in the emergency department and screen for risk factors related to social determinants of health, among others. The measure calls for hospitals to have protocols in place to move older patients out of the emergency department within eight hours of arrival or three hours of the decision to admit.

The ACEP GEDA program is informed by evidence-based best practices and recently accredited its 500th emergency department. The GEDA program is made possible through generous support from the John A. Hartford Foundation and West Health. A growing body of research links facilities in the ACEP GEDA program to lower costs, improve quality, and optimize patient experience.

ACEP Urges Senate to Pass the SAVE Act

ACEP and the American Hospital Association co-hosted a July Senate briefing in support of the bipartisan Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act.

“There’s a problem but we can fix it,” said James Phillps, MD, FACEP, an emergency physician in Washington, D.C., speaking on behalf of ACEP. Dr. Phillips appeared alongside Mark Boucot, President and Chief Executive Officer, Potomac Valley Hospital, Keyser, W.V. and Garrett Regional Medical Center, Oakland, Maryland, and Rachel Culpepper, DNP, RN, CENP, General Medicine Service Line Director, Indiana University Health West Hospital, Avon, Ind.

Click the barcode to see ACEP’s ED Violence page.

Senator Joe Manchin (I-WV) joined the panelists as a featured speaker and lead Senate sponsor of the SAVE Act. “We’re asking for the same protections workers in other industries have,” said Sen. Manchin. “It’s not too much to ask.” Violence is not something anyone should have to tolerate as a health care professional, the panelists explained. On top of safety concerns, a steady barrage of assaults lowers morale, impacts recruitment and retention, and complicates care delivery.

The SAVE Act is a central component of ACEP advocacy this year. The legislation would make assaulting a health care worker a federal crime. The briefing marks the third in a series on preventing ED violence this year. ACEP advocacy makes sure that you are heard directly where your voice matters most. An ACEP poll found that 91 percent of emergency physicians said they or a colleague were threatened or attacked within the prior year. Emergency physicians are leading the call for solutions and sharing their troubling stories.

ACEP24 Almost Here! Heather E. McGowan to Deliver Keynote Opening General Session

• Monday, Sept. 29 | 9-10:30 a.m.

Future-of-work strategist Heather E. McGowan will deliver the Opening General Session keynote speech at ACEP24.

Emergency physicians deeply understand how the last few years have forever changed where we work, who works, how we work and measure work, what we do for work and, most importantly, why we work. McGowan helps leaders prepare their teams and organizations for the post-pandemic world of work. McGowan describes herself as a sense maker, a dot connector, a deep thinker, and a pattern matcher who sees things that others miss. She will translate that knowledge to the emergency medicine workforce during her opening session presentation.

In 2020, Ms. McGowan was recognized as one of the Top 50 female futurists in the world by Forbes. In 2019, she was appointed as a faculty member of the Swinburne University Centre For the New Workforce in Melbourne, Australia. In 2022, McGowan was awarded an honorary doctorate from Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, in addition to earning her MBA from Babson College and her BFA in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design.

OTHER CAN’T MISS SESSIONS

Click the barcode to see the ACEP24 page.

Up Next: Waiting Room Medicine

James D. Mills Memorial Lecture

• Monday, Sept. 30 | 12:30-1:20 p.m.

Speaker: Diana Nordlund, DO, JD, FACEP

No beds in your departments? Managing patients in the waiting room? Discuss risks and solutions.

Strike While the Iron Is Hot: How to Expand Your Independent Group

Colin C. Rorrie, Jr., Lecture

• Tuesday, Oct. 1 | 10-10:50 a.m.

Speaker: Michael Granovsky, MD, FACEP and Thom Mayer, MD, FACEP

There exists a generational opportunity for Independent Group growth. The current environment is unique and has not existed for decades. The clinical value of your local group is appreciated, but you need the financial insights and leadership culture to be successful.

ACEP Submits Formal Comments to CMS on Proposed 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

ACEP urged the emergency medicine community to contact members of Congress over the past few months to let them know a fifth consecutive year of reductions in Medicare physician payments is unacceptable. ACEP has submitted comments to CMS on behalf of emergency physicians. The Proposed 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule is expected to be released on or around November 1, 2024—with an effective date of January 1, 2025. Medicare physician reimbursements have failed to keep up with inflation for decades.

ACEP’s advocacy to date has helped ensure that CMS included in this year’s proposed rule a positive budget neutrality conversion factor update, but even with that, physicians will still face a 2.8 percent cut. More must be done so that Medicare reimbursement reflects the fair value of physician services.

The CMS proposal also suggests changes to the CMS Quality Payment Program, including the ACEP-developed Emergency Medicine Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Value Pathway, or the Emergency Medicine MVP. ACEP created and supported the implementation of this model as a strong option to encourage uniform reporting of emergency medical services, which helps MIPS performance scores.