Dear Georgia Chapter,
We had another exciting and impactful annual ACC Legislative Conference in Washington, DC from Oct 15-17. This year we had more than 400 attendees spanning the entire cardiovascular care team, including more than 130 first-time attendees and 9 members of our own Georgia Chapter! I had a great time co-moderating a lively discussion between former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill and former White House staffer Mary Matalin at our HeartPAC Fundraiser dinner on Sunday evening. On Monday we attended sessions covering the current political landscape, ACC’s advocacy priorities, and strategies for meeting with lawmakers. We then convened on Capitol Hill and met directly with nearly 300 congressional offices about policies impacting patient access to care, clinician well-being and workforce, and improving heart health for all.
I am proud of all we achieved there, including raising nearly $40,000 for HeartPAC, ACC’s political action committee, with over 80% of conference attendees contributing. We also had tremendous impact with our voices on Capitol Hill, with The Increasing Access to Quality Cardiac Rehabilitation Care Act seeing an increase of 62.5% in congressional co-sponsors, and the GOLD Card Act with an increase of 37.5% in congressional co-sponsors immediately following the Conference.
If you are interested in learning more about advocacy for our cardiovascular patients and practices, HeartPAC will have a table later this month at our annual Chapter Meeting, or you can learn more about our legislative priorities or make a contribution here: https://www.heartpac.org/home.aspx. Please save the date for next year’s conference in DC from Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2024, and remember Georgia ACC will cover $1000 in travel expenses for all member attendees. Our goal is to double the size of the Georgia Delegation and we will need your help!
If you have any questions I would love to hear from you, and you may contact me via email at pschafer@augusta.edu.
Pascha E. Schafer, MD, FACC
Vice-chair, HeartPAC
Advocacy Chair and Secretary-Treasurer, Georgia Chapter