Foster Care Transformation and Optimization

Ensuring patients receive high-quality and continuous care that keeps up with new technologies is essential for better health outcomes. The ACC suggests several actions to help achieve this goal:

  • Simplify electronic prior authorization processes to reduce patient care delays.
  • Make telehealth services more accessible by maintaining flexibilities made available during the pandemic.
  • Create incentives that work across different specialties and health care providers.
  • Encourage innovative approaches to care delivery through effective ambulatory and virtual specialty care and support the balanced regulation of artificial intelligence technologies.

ACC in Action

  • The CONNECT for Health Act (H.R. 4206/S. 1261) was a key talking point at ACC Legislative Conference 2025. ACC member meetings with lawmakers led to a 56% increase in cosponsors in the House.
  • The Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care Act (H.R. 3514/S. 1816) was also featured as a key talking point at Legislative Conference, garnering majority bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.
  • The College is an active member of the Regulatory Relief Coalition, working with partner cardiovascular societies and other stakeholders to advance solutions to prior authorization and other administrative burdens.
  • Sweeping grassroots support from ACC members ushered in a significant victory when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule in early 2024, tightening timelines, increasing transparency and streamlining electronic prior authorization requests.
  • The ACC underscored the importance of securing personal information while enabling data-driven innovation and care improvement when responding to a request for information from the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee.

Policy Progress

  • The Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care Act (S. 1816/H.R. 3514), which garnered majority bipartisan support last Congress, has been reintroduced in both the House and Senate. Meanwhile in the states, prior authorization bills continue to make headway in several states like Oregon and have passed in Virginia, Hawaii, Indiana and North Dakota.
  • The Access to Claims Data Act (H.R. 4331), which aims to improve patient outcomes and care by granting access to Medicare claims data to qualified clinical data registries, has also been reintroduced this Congress.
  • Several bills have been introduced in Congress, including the CONNECT for Health Act (H.R. 4206/S. 1261), Sustainable Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Services in the Home Act (H.R. 783/S. 248), Telehealth Modernization Act (H.R. 5081/S. 2709), which all aim to maintain telehealth flexibilities made available during the pandemic and improve access to telehealth services.
  • Congress reintroduced the Reducing Medically Unnecessary Delays in Care Act (H.R. 2433), which would require all prior authorization and adverse determinations be made by a board-certified physician in the same specialty as the ordering clinician.

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Tell Congress to Make Medicare Telehealth Flexibilities Permanent

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