On Friday, April 3, ACEP sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar requesting $3.6 billion to support emergency physician practices. The specific request was derived from a formula developed by Tony Cirillo, MD, FACEP, and others based on an estimate of lost revenue due to lower ED volumes and increased operating expenses associated with COVID-19.
Our letter is a follow-up to one we sent last Friday that asked the Secretary to prioritize funding for frontline health care practitioners, especially emergency physicians, who are risking their lives combating the virus and have the greatest risk of missing work because of being exposed to COVID-19.
The stimulus bill (the CARES Act) included $100 billion to support health care providers. There have been a lot of questions about exactly how this funding will be distributed and how much will actually go to physicians versus hospitals and other facilities. On April 3, Secretary Azar said that part of the funding would go toward covering providers’ costs of delivering COVID-19 care for the uninsured.
The letter we sent to HHS has also been forwarded to Congressional leaders. ACEP will continue to fight for ACEP members, and we are pushing as hard as we can to ensure you are supported and protected during this difficult time.
