2025 SCCACS Advocacy Efforts
The Southern California Chapter of the American College of Surgeons is coordinating activities and proactively identifying and supporting issues that impact practicing surgeons and patients at the state and national levels. This is in collaboration with all three CA chapters formally termed the Joint Advocacy Committee of the ACS California Chapters (JAC-ACSCC).
Ongoing Legislation:
- AB 366: Requires anyone convicted of drunk driving to install an Ignition Interlock Device (IID) (Petrie-Norris) Bill Text – AB-366 Ignition interlock devices. All three CA ACS are supporting this bill.
Safe California Roads Coalition, Click here to sign up for the California Safe Roads Coalition and help advocate for AB 366
- HR 879: Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act. If you are interested in writing to your Representative and ask for co-sponsorship of HR 879 please click here:
Ongoing Educational Development (in progress):
- Electric Bicycle Injury Prevention Toolkit
- COMING SOON! – Human Trafficking-Toolkit for Healthcare Providers for Identification and Support
- Fall Prevention Toolkit
- Opioid Disposal Toolkit
* Thank you to Hiyori S. Roberts, BS, MS; Audrey R. Yang, BA, MPH for their hard work creating the Fall Prevention Toolkit.
* Thank you to Gillian Li, BS; Gisselle Quiroz, BA; Margaret Canady, BA; Gina Klemm, MPH; Erika Azpeitia, MPH for their hard work creating the Opioid Disposal Toolkit.
SCCACS Advocacy Committee
Chair – Sigrid Burruss, MD, FACS
UCI
Thomas Duncan, DO, FACS
Ventura County Medical Center
Sammy Eghbalieh, MD, FACS
Southern CA Multispecialty Center
Lorraine Kelley-Quon, MD, FACS
CHLA/USC
Hari Keshava, MD
UCI
John Lam, MD, FACS
Southern CA Permanente Medical Group
Learn more about other advocacy efforts from previous years in the Advocacy Archive.
Ongoing Initiatives:
Pre-hospital blood Programs Improving Access to Prehospital Blood May Save 10,000 Lives a Year | ACS
Emergency Preparedness System National Trauma Emergency Preparedness System | ACS
Upcoming Events
Stay tuned for the next installment in the Advocacy webinar series. More information coming soon!
ACS Advocacy Summit
There are many active issues that the ACS is working on federally which were discussed with members of Congress and the Senate at our recent 2025 ACS Advocacy Summit held April 5–8, 2025 in Washington, DC. Click here to review the advocacy packet. A brief description of these issues below.
- Physician Medicare Payments: Physician Medicare payments continue to decrease with another 2.83 percent payment cut planned for 2025. The Senate and House need to support urgent Congressional action to fix the broken Medicare physician payment system.
- Student Loan Debt: Legislation is introduced to defer interest on student loans while borrowers are completing their training. The ask is for the Senate and House to co-sponsor the REDI Act (SR 942/HR 2028)
- Protection of seniors from unnecessary delays and denials: The Improving Senior’ Timely Access to Care Act will help increase transparency around Medicare Advantage plans prior authorization requirements and establish electronic prior authorization
- Surgeon well-being: This legislation seeks to reauthorize the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act to fund programs for mental health support (HR 929/S266)
- Neglected Surgical Conditions: This legislation seeks to provide funding and thus strengthen surgical health capacity to address health conditions such as hernias, fistula, and untreated traumatic injuries in underserved areas.
- Cancer Care: Approximately 9.4 million cancers are missed due to screening delays. This bill will require health insurance plans to cover screening and diagnostic breast imaging with no cost sharing for patients. This also seeks to provide CDC funding for cancer research. The ask is for Senate and House co-sponsorship for the Find it Early Act.
- Critical Trauma Programs: The Pandemic All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) is critical to supporting the nation’s response to public health and medical emergencies. This funding has been on hold however and requires urgent reauthorization. In addition, funding for MISSION ZERO is crucial to military readiness by supporting military-civilian partnerships. The Senate and House must reauthorize the Pandemic All-Hazards Preparedness Act (HR 2414) and fully fund the MISSION ZERO grant program and CDC Injury Center.
Three trainees from CA presented their work at the recent ACS Advocacy Summit. Congratulations to Michael Artigue (UC Irvine), Jenna Lee (CHOC), Sabrina Woll (USC).
Meeting with Representative Dave Min
CA Surgeons at the 2025 ACS Advocacy Summit
ACS Advocacy Summit Abstract Competition
CMA Advocacy Day
The California Medical Association (CMA) recently hosted its 51st annual Legislative Advocacy Day. On April 9, 2025, more than 350 physicians, medical students and residents from across the state gathered in Sacramento to advocate for important health care issues affecting Californians.
CA ACS Surgeons joined the CMA to discuss important issues with Legislators in Sacramento. The highest priority was prior-authorization (PA). Insurance companies continue to put up barriers between patients and physicians so that patients have delays in care, get sicker, and health care becomes more expensive.
Facts:
- 93% of physicians report care delays due to PA with 94% reporting a negative impact on patient outcomes.
- More than 4 in 5 physicians (88%0 report PA leads to higher overall use of resources that result in unnecessary costs and waste.
- More than 1 in 4 physicians (29%) report that PA has led to a serious adverse event for a patient in their care.
Bills:
SB 306 (BECKER): Requires health plans to remove the requirement for prior authorization from any service that they approve more than 90% of the time. This will reduce the overall volume of prior authorization requests and ensure that patients can receive the care they need with minimal delay and physicians can spend more time focusing on patient care.
AB 510 (ADDIS): Requires that appeals of prior authorization denials be performed by a provider of the same or similar specialty. This will help ensure that providers can discuss prior authorization denials with a professional peer who understands the recommended treatment and underlying condition.
AB 539 (SCHIAVO): Extends the validity of an approved prior authorization to one year (current industry standard is between 60-90 days). This will provide patients with a longer window of time to receive medically necessary care and avoid cumbersome prior authorization review (and ultimately appeal) processes.
AB 512 (HARABEDIAN): Requires health plans to respond to urgent prior authorization requests within 24 hours and respond to nonurgent requests within 48 hours. Currently, health plans have 72 hours for urgent and five days for nonurgent requests. This change will ensure more patients can receive care in a timely fashion, consistent with the urgency of their condition or can swiftly appeal any denials, if necessary.