If you are a member of Generation X like I am, or a Baby Boomer, you may remember sitting through endless civics classes in high school. That’s where you learned about how government worked, or at least how it should work, with a government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” as Abraham Lincoln expressed in his Gettysburg Address of 1863. When you are a teen-ager, the closest you may ever get to actual government is running for a position in student leadership; as an adult, however, we learn quickly that every facet of our lives is dependent in some way on the state or federal government’s actions. As a medical entrepreneur and ambulatory surgery center (ASC) owner/operator, you know that your very livelihood is affected by what occurs on Capitol Hill, and it’s been a rather tempestuous time for ASCs.

You may have heard it so often that you now turn a deaf ear toward it, but I’d like to remind you again of how critical it is to become involved in political advocacy for your industry. The associations continue to petition you for your participation because they know your involvement as a physician, nurse, or administrator is one of the best ways to boost their ongoing professional lobbying efforts. As Kathy Bryant of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (formerly FASA) has said, members of the ASC community who speak up for their cause help her become an even more effective advocate on the Hill.

Yes, it is challenging to practice as a surgeon by day and as an advocate by night, but it might be the only way to ensure that the ASC agenda is moved forward in a distracting election year. If lawmakers and regulators hear regularly from the physicians “in the trenches” they will better understand the ramifications of their decisions and not legislate in a vacuum.

As you know, in late October, the ASC Medicare Payment Modernization Act of 2007 was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), and members of the ASC community must petition your U.S. senators to become co-sponsors of S. 2250. The Senate legislation will mirror earlier legislation introduced in the House (HR 1823) by U.S. Representatives Kendrick Meek (D-FL) and Wally Herger (R-CA). Together, these two pieces of legislation could significantly modernize payments to ASCs and champion other related issues. I urge you to visit the ASC Association Web site, where you can access links to read these bills and learn more about how you can communicate with your legislators.

Grassroots advocacy, which is the act of an individual constituent communicating ideas and opinions to government officials and their staff members, has always been the strong suit of the ASC community. Grassroots advocacy is especially effective when many individual members of an industry or an organization write letters and make phone calls to their lawmakers to express a consistent message. Constituents’ concerns and issues are important to Congress members, for it is we who still vote and either help re-elect them or find their replacements. As jaded about politics as we can become, this is the one lesson from civics class that we should remember and act upon. To this end we’ve assembled our annual legislative report, beginning on page 17, to bring you up to speed and encourage you to keep fighting the good fight. 

Until next month, 

Kelly M. Pyrek 
Group Editor, Virgo Publishing Medical Group 
kpyrek@vpico.com 

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