The AAEM Action Report

AAEM convened its 2025 Hill Day on Wednesday, June 4th. AAEM advocates from across the country asked their members of Congress to support bills which would provide due process rights to hospital-based physicians, eliminate non-compete clauses, and end the Corporate Practice of Medicine.

AAEM’s 2025 Hill Day featured 52 registrants with 47 attendees representing 20 states and the District of Columbia. This year’s attendees met with 65 Congressional offices and participated in advocacy training conducted by I Street Advocates, and attended by Representative John Joyce (R-PA), the lead Republican on our House due process bill.

Next week, I Street will follow up with each office AAEM met with during the fly in to again make the “ask” that they cosponsor the Physician and Patient Safety Act, and in the Senate that they also cosponsor the newly introduced Workforce Mobility Act. These follow-ups will align with Rep. Raul Ruiz’s “Dear Colleague” letter which was sent last week to all House members of Congress inviting them to join the bill as a cosponsor. I Street has also engaged as Hill Day follow up with our House and Senate bill leads – Rep. Joyce and Senator Roger Marshall, MD (R-KA) regarding the potential to implement the bill through executive action. There is genuine interest in exploring this path with the Administration. However, both Sen. Marshall and Rep. Joyce will wait until after the reconciliation bill consideration to determine next steps.

This week, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) reintroduced the Workforce Mobility Act, S. 2031, which would ban most non-compete clauses, including in the hospital setting.

Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) remains committed to reintroducing the House companion bill. However, he is holding off on introduction until a Republican co-lead is identified. Rep. John Joyce (R-PA) continues to express interest in the legislation, and I Street is actively engaging with his office to address outstanding questions.

While the Senate still aims to pass the Budget Reconciliation package before the July 4th recess, President Trump has suggested that the deadline may slip, as Republicans clash over overall spending levels. This internal tension is unfolding alongside the Congressional Budget Office’s revised estimate for the debt ceiling “X-date,” which now pushes the deadline back by at least two weeks, offering Congressional Republicans a slightly longer window to forge a compromise with themselves.

The House Freedom Caucus—an influential voice among several Senate conservatives — released a 10-page memo outlining proposals that are likely to be politically challenging for moderate Republicans in both chambers. The memo includes controversial measures such as scaling back the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction and reviving previously rejected Medicaid reforms, including imposing new restrictions on the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) and curbing states’ ability to draw down additional federal Medicaid matching funds through provider taxes levied on healthcare entities. Finally, last week Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said that Medicare cuts could be considered as part of the Senate reconciliation process, but no text has been released, so the particulars of their proposal remain unclear.

On May 13th, AAEM joined 25 other physician organizations in urging Congressional leadership to address “urgently needed” reforms to the physician payment system. The letter also reaffirmed our strong support for the Medicaid program and called for a renewed commitment to evidence-based care, and Medicaid eligibility standards that protect vulnerable populations. You can read the full letter here.

On May 20th, Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) sent a letter to the CEO of Prime Healthcare raising concerns about the California-based, for-profit health system’s recent actions following its acquisition of eight Illinois hospitals. In their letter, the senators questioned Prime Healthcare’s decision to suspend pediatric services at one hospital, withdraw the Level II trauma center designation at another, and terminate obstetric and maternal care services at a third. “Prime Healthcare has only operated these eight Illinois hospitals for two months, and there are already profound concerns about patients losing access to care,” they wrote. You can read the full letter here.

On May 28th, Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats renewed their call for a comprehensive accounting of resignations, retirements, and layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and reiterated their request for Secretary Kennedy to testify publicly before the committee. In a letter to Secretary Kennedy, lawmakers noted that HHS has yet to respond to their initial letter sent in April, and that subsequent conversations with department staff failed to provide “clear or adequate answers.” They further expressed concern that “in some instances, information that we were provided at that briefing directly contradicted statements that you yourself have made publicly, and your staff was unable to explain the contradictions.” You can read the letter here.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA,) Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS), Representative John Joyce (R-PA) and Representative Suzan DelBene (D-WA) reintroduced the Improving Access to Care Act. This bill would improve access to care for seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans by increasing transparency around MA prior authorization requirements, allow HHS to create timeframes for decisions, and by establishing an electronic prior authorization process. You can read Senator Marshall’s press release here. AAEM again supported the bill.

Representative John Joyce (R-PA) and Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) introduced the ABC-ED Act, a bill that would address boarding and crowding in emergency departments. The bill would equalize existing federal grants to promote and expand statewide and regional bed tracking, establish two new demonstration models under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) that would (1) enhance care for older adults and (2) expand timely access to acute mental health care—both populations disproportionately impacted by emergency department (ED) boarding, and direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a comprehensive study on best practices for public health data systems to track hospital capacity and their impact on ED boarding. AAEM supported the bill and sent Representatives Joyce and Dingell a letter in this regard.

On June 9th, Secretary Kennedy announced the full reconstituting of ACIP, an advisory committee that makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy, and clinical need of vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Secretary Kennedy removed the 17 sitting members of the ACIP committee and replaced 8 of the members two days later. The Committee is scheduled to meet June 25th, 26th, and 27th.

AAEM joined a coalition of medical societies urging the CDC to reinstate the dismissed members. Read the full letter here.

On May 22nd, the White House released their 72-page MAHA report aimed at creating a “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment.” The report briefly referenced youth mental health care in the emergency department setting.  The report mostly looked at contributing factors to children’s health—including poor diet, accumulation of environmental toxins, insufficient physical activity, chronic stress, and overmedicalization. You can read the full report here.

Every year, the Administration releases the president’s budget, which requests funding from Congress for the upcoming fiscal year (FY). While the budget is nonbinding, it reflects administration priorities and can be viewed as a guide map to how the administration wants departments, like the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), to be structured and funded through the Congressional appropriations process.

On May 30, 2025, HHS released additional information related to the FY 2026 president’s budget: the FY 2026 Budget in Brief and agency/division congressional justifications. These additional documents, which follow the “skinny budget”, and a leaked budget document released earlier, provide more details about HHS’s funding requests and how the Trump administration plans to restructure the department. The budget and its associated congressional justifications contain both funding cuts and reforms such as consolidating the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality into the HHS policy office, merging the Health Resources and Services Administration into the new Administration for a Healthy America, and streamlining the current number of NIH Institutes. The budget also plans to continue to cap indirect cost rates at 15%.

Congress has kicked off its portion of the FY 2026 appropriation’s process. The House Appropriations Committee has considered multiple bills and the Labor, Health and Human Services bill, often the hardest to pass, is scheduled for consideration next month. The House and Senate ranking minority sent a letter to OMB Director Russ Voight expressing their concerns with the Administration’s budget process and submissions to date which shows how difficult agreeing to a bill this year will be. Director Voight has maintained that the executive branch and not Congress should have authority over how federal dollars are spent. Notably, the Medicare physician fee fix will potentially be included in any end of year FY 2026 funding package.

On June 11th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new guidance telling providers of emergency abortion care that they are protected under federal law even if bans on the procedure exist in their states. CMS overturned a directive from the prior Administration that gave legal assurances to physicians and other providers facing questions about what qualifies as an emergency under a state ban. Since then, courts have grappled with how state restrictions mesh with federal directives on emergency health care. The Supreme Court last year dismissed a case surrounding Idaho’s ban without ruling on the merits.

In February, the Administration signed an executive order (EO) on price transparency. The EO called on HHS to further disclose actual pricing within 90 days. HHS subsequently issued guidance and a Request for Information (RFI) on May 22nd to increase hospital and health plan price transparency. The CMS hospital guidance states that CMS expects “that, for most contracting scenarios, hospitals’ payer-specific negotiated charges can be expressed as a dollar amount”. The Administration wants hospitals to provide percentages in the “machine readable files” instead of actual dollar amounts which will provide more transparency to patients and families. Comments on the RFI are due on July 21, 2025.

California SB 351 passed the Senate on May 28th 30-6. It has been referred to the House committee on Business, Professions, and Consumer Protection and the House Committee on the Judiciary. AAEM supported this bill.

S.C.R. 27, a resolution that urges Congress to take action on Corporate Practice of Medicine was enacted on June 11th.

HB 2298, which granted independent prescriptive authority for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs), was enacted on May 29th. AAEM opposed this bill.

SB 951, which bans the corporate practice of medicine and noncompete clauses, was enacted into law on June 9th. AAEM supported this bill.

HB 1460, which requires the Department of Health and the Office of the Attorney General to review and approve significant transactions, greater than $10 million, involving health care entities and covered entities, such as private equity firms, passed the House on June 10th 121-82.