Statement attributable to:
Ana María López, MD, MPH, MACP
President, American College of Physicians
Washington, DC (April 9, 2019) — The American College of Physicians (ACP) signed onto amicus briefs with other medical organizations to oppose the recently issued changes to Title X— the only federal program exclusively dedicated to providing underserved patient populations with necessary health care services, including cancer screenings, vaccinations, and family planning services. ACP firmly believes that access to quality and affordable health care should never be jeopardized.
ACP signed onto amicus briefs to protect Title X funding in Oregon, California, and Washington. The briefs urged courts to recognize that implementing these significant changes to the program would create barriers for patients, limit access to health care services, and interfere with the patient-physician relationship by restricting the medical advice physicians can offer their patients.
ACP is concerned that changes to Title X would limit access to care for millions of patients and put facilities in the difficult position to close or limit their operations unless they agree to unethical intrusions to the patient-physician relationship. When the proposed changes were released last year, ACP wrote that the changes would restrict the services and care clinicians can offer their patients who are seeking reproductive health care services, create more administrative burdens for physicians, and increase documentation requirements.
Too often, I see patients who already struggle in accessing health care coverage. As a physician, I fear changes to Title X will cause patients to forgo preventive care services and treatment altogether when faced with uncertainty and lack of resources. ACP calls upon the administration to immediately withdraw the final rules, uphold and support access to women’s health care services, and protect access to care for all Americans.
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About the American College of Physicians
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization in the United States with members in more than 145 countries worldwide. ACP membership includes 154,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Contact: Julie Hirschhorn, (202) 261-4523, jhirschhorn@acponline.org