ACOG Advocacy Targets Gaps in Care, Financial Relief, PPE, and Prioritizing Testing to LD

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we’re standing with you to protect and support you, your patients, and your practice. 

We recognize the financial strain you’re experiencing within your practice. As the Paycheck Protection Program’s funding ran out, ACOG urged House and Senate leaders to give the program additional funds to provide financial assistance to struggling physician practices of all sizes. This week Congress passed, and the president signed into law, a bill to provide supplemental funding for the Paycheck Protection Program and other programs to support small businesses, including physician practices. 

This week the Department of Health and Human Services released additional information about the distribution of direct financial assistance to physicians. ACOG released a statement today regarding the methodology that the Department of Health and Human Services is using to disperse relief funds, and continues to urge that they use our principles to ensure that needed funds are directed to obstetrician–gynecologists. To learn more about how physicians can take advantage of existing programs, see CARES Act FAQ for Practices, which is updated regularly.

Gaps in health care access, including among immigrant populations, have become even more evident during the current crisis.  ACOG is working to ensure that your patients can continue to get the care they need. That’s why ACOG joined the American Academy of Pediatrics and other health professional and hospital organizations in calling on Congress to ensure that the needs of immigrant populations are addressed in the next COVID-19 package. We collectively urge Congress to halt the implementation of the harmful public charge regulation and ensure that everyone, regardless of immigrations status, income, or categorical eligibility can access health care during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, ACOG is continuing our advocacy around issues of patient care and physician safety. Last week the administration announced that it was cutting off funding to WHO. Funding for the WHO is critical, and ACOG’s concern about this measure led us to join forces with global advocacy partners to urge the administration to take immediate action to reinstate funding for the WHO. We’ve also urged the FDA to expand its recent policy suspending enforcement of risk evaluation and mitigation strategy requirements for certain drugs during the COVID-19 pandemic to include additional prescription drugs that could safely be self-administered through telehealth or self-administration, specifically mifepristone. 

ACOG continues working at all levels of government to advocate for physicians, our specialty, and our patients during this public health crisis. We’re advocating in Congress and through state governments across the country.  We also continue our dialogue with White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Ambassador Deborah Birx, MD; U.S. Surgeon General Vice Admiral Jerome M. Adams, MD, MPH; partners at the FDA; and others at the federal and state levels to urge that labor and delivery units considered a high-risk area in need of rapid-response diagnostic testing. We’re also working with many of the same partners to address the ongoing shortage of personal protective equipment to ensure that you have access to the personal protective equipment you need to keep you and your patients safe.

Visit our COVID-19 resource center to stay up to date on our COVID-19 advocacy activities and physician resources.