June 28, 2012

As you may know, today the United States Supreme Court decided to uphold The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (Read the complete 193-page decision here.)

This decision will directly impact the work of the Emergency Medicine Action Fund, a grassroots organization that has unified the house of emergency medicine and become a powerful and influential voice in federal regulatory and legal issues that matter to emergency physicians.

"One of the founding missions of the Emergency Medicine Action Fund was to address the rule-writing process of the Affordable Care Act,” said EM Action Fund Chair Dr. Wes Fields. "The Supreme Court's decision today means that federal health care reform will continue, but with many crucial funding and timing questions still to be answered, as well as variation in how the ACA is implemented state by state.”

Dr. Fields added, "The work of the EM Action Fund is now more important than ever. Payers, policymakers, and health care consumers all need to agree on how the ED adds value, quality, and timely access to care. Emergency physicians practice in the hub between communities and hospital-based care, and we are ideally positioned to make health care in America work better for all.”

Stay tuned for more detailed updates and analysis of the decision by the Supreme Court Justices.