Regs & Eggs

Welcome to the archives of Regs and Eggs with Jeffrey Davis, ACEP’s former blog on federal regulatory (‘reg’) affairs, with posts that focused on proposed or final regs, demonstrations, grant opportunities, other announcements from federal agencies, and ACEP's work to advocate for you.

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If the weekly Regs and Eggs aren’t enough for your breakfast, you can still check out ACEP’s Regulatory Affairs overview for more updates.

Latest Posts

October 8, 2020 • CMS Info • Medicare Info

ACEP Responds to a Major Proposed Reg: 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

Earlier this week, ACEP submitted a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), responding to its proposed calendar year (CY) 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS)—which was rel...

October 1, 2020 • HHS

Digging through President Trump’s Health Care Plan: What’s Old and What’s New

Last week, President Trump announced his long awaited “America First Health Plan.” The plan primarily came in the form of a long executive order (EO) that attempts to lay out the Trump Administration’...

September 24, 2020 • Advocacy Info

Value-based Care: An Example of How the Affordable Care Act Has Impacted Health Care

The Supreme Court is set to rule in the coming months on the constitutionality of Affordable Care Act (ACA). When I think about what would happen to the health care system if the Court does in fact in...

September 17, 2020 • HHS

President Trump Issues Yet Another Executive Order on Drug Prices

Over the weekend, President Trump issued an executive order aimed at controlling drug prices in Medicare Parts B and D. Sound familiar? That’s because the President already issued three separate drug-...

September 10, 2020 • CMS Info • Medicare Info

CMS Establishes New Hospital Reimbursement Policies and Requirements

In recent Regs & Eggs posts, I have delved into the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed changes to Medicare physician payment policies for calendar year (CY) 2021 and their potent...

September 3, 2020 • Financial Support

Advocating for Reforms to the COVID-19 Provider Relief Fund and Uninsured Program

Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has continued to mishandle the distribution of the Provider Relief Fund (PRF), a $175 billion fund appropriated by Congress to hel...

August 27, 2020 • Advocacy Info

Trump Administration Continues to Chip Away at Affordable Care Act Requirements

As you have probably read in the news, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in November for another case regarding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Over the last several y...

August 20, 2020 • Opioids Info

Increasing Access to Naloxone

As emergency physicians, you are not only on the frontlines battling COVID-19, but for years, you have been actively trying to tackle another public health crisis facing our country: the opioid use di...

August 13, 2020 • Telehealth

President Trump’s Executive Order on Rural Health and Telehealth: Impact on Emergency Medicine

On August 3, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) related to rural health and telehealth. As a reminder, EOs don’t actually effectuate policies, but rather, they direct federal agencies to i...

August 6, 2020 • Physician Fee Schedule

It’s Here: The 2021 Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule Has Been Released!

For weeks now, the health policy community has been eagerly waiting for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to release the 2021 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and Quality Payment Program ...

July 30, 2020

President Trump Issues Executive Orders on Drug Prices

As we continue to wait for the 2021 Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS) proposed regulation to be released, the Trump Administration has been making other regulatory headlines. Last Friday, Presiden...

July 23, 2020 • HHS

Concerns and Skepticism about HHS’ Transition to New Hospital Data Collection System

As you may have heard, last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a change in how states and hospitals are to report critical data about the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of r...

July 16, 2020 • HHS

HHS Finalizes Regulations on Substance Use Disorder Patients’ Confidentiality

Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS') Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued a final regulation modifying 42 CFR Part 2—a set of reg...

July 9, 2020 • Advocacy Info

An Update on ACEP’s COVID-19 Advocacy Strategy

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging across the country with no end in sight. As regions are discussing how to reopen safely, we are seeing large daily upticks in the number of cases, ...

July 2, 2020 • Medicare Info

Medicare Payment Waivers: How Long will They Last?

ACEP continues to work to ensure that you have the resources and regulatory flexibility you need to effectively and safely treat your patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. As discussed in a previous ...

June 25, 2020 • Alternative Payment Model

ACEP’s Alternative Payment Model Strategic Initiative: An Update and Next Steps

While we are still actively working on COVID-19-related issues, including pushing HHS to provide emergency physicians with more funding through the Provider Relief Fund, I want to update you on ACEP’s...

June 18, 2020 • Violence in the ED

Addressing Violence in the Emergency Department—Yes, It’s Still a Priority

Although most of ACEP’s federal advocacy efforts in recent months have focused on our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve still been advancing efforts on other critical issues for emergency physi...

June 11, 2020 • HHS

HHS Announces Additional Distributions of Provider Relief Funding…But None for Emergency Physicians

Over the last two months or so, I’ve described here in Regs & Eggs how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been distributing the Provider Relief Fund—the $175 billion pot of funding ...

June 4, 2020 • Advocacy Info

Advocating for You and Your Health

Happy Anniversary, Regs & Eggs! This week marks one year since the first Regs & Eggs blog post was published. Over the past year I have tried to lay out how federal regulations impact you and the pati...

May 28, 2020

Summertime is Approaching…Which Means Reg Season is Coming Soon!

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer, and for those of us in the health policy community, summertime is the busiest time of the year: Reg Season! Every year, the Centers for Medicare & Me...

May 21, 2020 • Opioids Info

Ongoing Efforts to Reduce Barriers to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment

This week is EMS week, which gives all of us an opportunity to thank our frontline providers for their hard work and sacrifice as they have answered the call of duty during the COVID-19 pandemic.

May 14, 2020 • Medicare Info

Medicare Telehealth Flexibilities…Are They Here to Stay?

On Monday, I had the opportunity to participate in a webinar sponsored by the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative on emergency department (ED)-based telehealth models.

May 7, 2020

Another Week… Which Means More COVID-19 Reg Changes

In my blog last week, I mentioned that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was planning on releasing a COVID-19 regulation any day—and in fact the reg came out later that same day, Thur...

April 30, 2020 • Financial Support

Don’t Blink! Changes to Financial Support Options Happening Non-stop!

I’ll be frank: I’m finding these blogs harder and harder to write as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. It seems that as soon as I write a blog, it becomes outdated.

April 23, 2020 • Financial Support

You Received Financial Relief. Should You Keep it?

For the last couple weeks, I have discussed issues related to the distribution of the $100 billion pot of funding that was included in the stimulus bill (the CARES Act). As I mentioned last week, you ...