This post was authored by Stephanie Siehr, MD, chair of the FIT Section Leadership Council and a fellow of Pediatric Cardiology at Stanford University.

I had the pleasure of attending the ACC’s annual Legislative Conference this past week in Washington, DC, and was joined by numerous fellows in training (FITs) from across the country who all traveled to our nation’s capital to learn about health policy from ACC leaders and to communicate directly with members of Congress to promote cardiovascular care in the changing landscape of health care reform.

The first day included learning about the strategic plan for the future of ACC from Shal Jacobovitz, CEO of ACC, as well as an address from John Gordon Harold, MD, FACC, president of the ACC.  They set the groundwork for an exciting day consisting of ACC member panelists discussing the transformation of health care to members of the Senate Finance Committee giving us an inside look into bipartisan efforts in payment reform.  ACCPAC held a reception that evening where all the FITs met with leaders within the community.

The next day we all traveled to Capitol Hill to meet directly with the senators and congressmen from our respective states to promote several key issues: permanent repeal of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) – the Medicare physician reimbursement formula – and to garner support against a new bill that would eliminate the in-office ancillary service exemption (IOASE) which allows us to perform imaging studies in our offices instead of having to refer patients to the hospital.  I certainly plugged for support against graduate medical education funding cuts as well.

In case you missed it, we chronicled interviews from the conference via our FITs on the GO video blog, which can be seen below.  The message from ACC members was clear: FITs need to get involved early and learn about advocacy!  Don’t miss out on the state chapter and national FIT travel awards available for Legislative Conference.  I hope to see even more of our esteemed FITs on the hill next year.

The FITs on the GO provided live coverage of the 2013 Legislative Conference. To view more videos, visit YouTube.com/FITsontheGO.

ACC FIT advocacy message from Patrick O'Gara, MD, FACC, president-elect of the ACC:

[youtuber youtube='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTqAG2As6Aw']

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