Protecting & Expanding Access to GI Care – In Congress and Beyond!
In Congress…
ACG is honored to serve as your voice for clinical GI in the halls of Congress, and 2025 brought several wins.
In April, we held our largest Advocacy Day yet, with more than 100 GI leaders joining us in D.C. for 200+ meetings with legislators and their staff. Our tireless advocates offered legislative solutions alongside the latest data about Medicare cuts, administrative burden, and colorectal cancer (CRC) screening access.
Our advocacy efforts paid off, with Congress adopting two of our key priorities:
- First, July’s reconciliation bill included a “doc fix” for Medicare reimbursement, providing a 2.5% payment increase for 2026.
- Second, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees endorsed our requested report language on surveillance colonoscopy coverage. This language now awaits a full floor vote in each chamber. If enacted, ACG will use the report to press CMS to direct payors regulated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to cover surveillance colonoscopies as the preventive screenings they are.
However, ACG understands your anger with Congressional inaction on Medicare system reform. This year, it was also compounded by CMS’ misguided decision to apply a 2.5% ‘efficiency’ cut to work RVUs, as well as changes to practice expense calculations; together, these will harm reimbursement and access to GI services in 2026. Unlike Congress, we remain committed to addressing your needs and supporting GI practices and patients.
Throughout 2025, ACG proudly endorsed new bills to address early-onset CRC and stomach cancer, make patient access to telehealth permanent, reduce prior authorization burdens, and expand the healthcare workforce, and more. Learn more and tell your representatives to support these bills >
And our impact in Congress spanned beyond legislation!
At our annual luncheon during April’s fly-in, ACG was grateful to welcome five Members of Congress – Reps. Herb Conaway, MD (D-NJ), Maxine Dexter, MD (D-OR), Andy Harris, MD (R-MD), Rich McCormick, MD (R-GA), and Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) – as well as two senior Congressional staffers. Collectively, they addressed the relevance of patient and physician advocacy on Capitol Hill and provided insight into the current Congress’ health policy priorities.
ACG and Legislative & Public Policy Council Chair Louis Wilson, MD, FACG were honored to participate in countless roundtables and summits, including those with the influential GOP Doctor’s Caucus about physician-led practices and the Veteran’s Affairs Committee on community care networks. We also applauded the relaunch of the bipartisan Congressional Men’s Health Caucus, led by Reps. Rich McCormick, MD (R-GA) and Troy Carter (D-LA), and we look forward to supporting caucus events in the future.
… elsewhere in Washington, D.C. …
This spring, in the Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Braidwood about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), ACG submitted an amicus brief, championing the lifesaving benefits of CRC screening and alerting the court to the practical stakes of the case. Ultimately, the Supreme Court upheld the USPSTF’s role in recommending which services must be covered without cost-sharing under the ACA – a decision that ACG hopes will protect decades of progress.
And during the summer, after hearing member concerns over proposed National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding cuts and delays, the ACG Governors sent more than 20 letters to key Senators and House Representatives who oversee funding for the NIH. The letters emphasized the importance of biomedical research and cited active GI research projects in local communities that impact both our patients and state economies.
… and in state legislatures across the country!
ACG shares your frustration with congressional gridlock, and as a result, state advocacy continues to be a top priority for the ACG Governors and LPPC. We are always proud to support state bills that improve access to GI care for patients and reduce administrative burdens in our practices.
In 2025, we were excited to support numerous bills that were enacted into law, including expanded access to CRC screening in Alabama, Kentucky (pictured above), and Texas, as well as prior authorization reform in Alaska, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and New Jersey.
Partnering with Patient Groups and Coalitions
As part of Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month in March, ACG participated in Fight CRC’s annual “United in Blue” event on the National Mall. Then-President Amy Oxentenko, MD, MACG spoke at the rally and highlighted the College’s essential 2021 clinical guideline that recommended age 45 to start CRC screenings for average risk adults.
ACG and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation teamed up to support an 8-week virtual therapy group available nationally for IBD patients. The program uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and gut-directed hypnotherapy. Learn more >
The ACG Board of Governors remain a proud national sponsor of the Colon Cancer Coalition’s popular ‘Get Your Rear in Gear’ 5Ks – a partnership that will continue in 2026!
The proceeds from these local events stay local, ensuring we support our communities by raising screening rates, reducing health disparities, researching early-onset CRC, helping patients and caregivers, and more. Find an event in your area!
Lastly, ACG continues to be well-represented at the Digestive Disease National Coalition (DDNC), as coalition President and Former ACG Trustee Caroll Koscheski, MD, MACG, Ralph McKibbin, MD, FACG, ACG Governor for Western Pennsylvania, and former Governors Aline Charabaty, MD, FACG and Joyann Kroser, MD, FACG all regularly join DDNC advocacy days.
The DDNC is a national advocacy organization comprised of medical societies and patient groups focusing on digestive diseases and conditions The DDDNC brings patients and providers together for a common voice on Capitol Hill.
Supporting Your Practice and Reducing Burdens
In 2025, ACG’s Practice Management Committee again produced must-read insights for GI practices. This included three new toolbox articles on:
- The 10 Cardinal Rules of Physician Recruitment, from Andy Tau, MD, Lanre Jimoh, MD, MBA, and Syed Hussain, MD
- Building a Weight Loss Program in GI Practice, from Deepinder Goyal, MD MSCR and Renu Umashanker, MD, FACG
- Incorporating MASLD Imaging Testing in Your Practice, from Renu Umashanker, MD, FACG and Lanre Jimoh MD, MBA
And don’t forget about ACG’s Prior Authorization Letter Generator! Our easy-to-use tool helps you create custom letters for common GI conditions and IBD treatments, and does not store any patient data. Create your custom letters now >
2025 By the Numbers
1,300+ messages sent by hundreds of ACG members to Congress and CMS
Your individual actions matter! Topics included support for expanding CRC screening access warning CMS of the dangers of their ‘efficiency adjustment’ and practice expense changes, prior authorization bills, and more.
300+ in-person meetings with Members of Congress and staff
In addition to more than 200 meetings at the April fly-in, ACG members and our staff strengthened relationships with legislators throughout the year – not only in D.C. and at roundtables and summits, but crucially also in their home states and local communities.
15 in-depth blogs on the latest policy and regulatory news
The ACG Blog connects the dots between the latest developments in Washington and how they will impact clinical GI practice.
In 2025, we covered many reimbursement issues, including a reversal of plans for Medicare and Medicaid to cover GLP-1s for weight loss, the ever-evolving landscape of telehealth coverage, the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ and more.
3 past ACG presidents sharing workforce perspectives
Back in February, in a series of Healio articles, three ACG presidents – Amy Oxentenko, MD, MACG, Daniel Pambianco, MD, MACG, and Samir Shah, MD, MACG – offered their opinions on why innovation should guide our thinking about the future GI workforce, the impact of provider maldistribution, and leveraging a creative, team-based approach to meet patient demand.
Addressing the GI workforce challenges was a key focus for Dr. Oxentenko’s presidency. Our ‘Workforce of the Future’ task force analyzed the workforce landscape and their conclusions and recommendations – through the lens of three groups: gastroenterologists, anesthetizing needs, and advanced practice providers – will be published early next year in the Red Journal.
But most importantly: One Voice for Clinical GI