In January 2015, a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators and Representatives introduced the Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids Act of 2015 (ACE Kids Act), S. 298 and H.R. 546. If passed the Act will improve Medicaid care for the children with complex medical conditions. The legistation currently has 136 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and 19 co-sponsors in the Senate. The bill has been referred to committees in both the House and Senate, but it has not progressed further. To move the legistlation forward for a vote, I encourage you to contact your Congressional Representative and the Texas Senators to express your support for this bill.

The specifics of the bill were reviewed in-depth in a post by Jennifer Nguyen Chew, MD on February 18, 2015. The highlights of the proposed changes to the 2015 ACE Act include:

 

• Improve coordination of care for children to reduce the burden on families
• Address problems with fragmented care across state lines
• Gather national data on complex conditions to help researchers improve treatments for rare diseases
• Potentially save an estimated $13 billion over its first 10 years, compared to the current system

 

Improving systems of care for children with medical complexity – while reducing expenditures – is an important challenge facing today’s pediatric professionals. I encourage you to review the lists of co-sponsors to see if your Representative is among those sponsoring the bill. I also urge you to contact the Texas Senators and your Representative to express your support for this bill. Thank them for their support of this vulnerable population.

 

These are the lists of House and Senate co-sponsors:

 https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/546/cosponsors

 https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/243/cosponsors

 

For more information:

 https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/546/all-info

https://www.childrenshospitals.org/Issues-and-Advocacy/Children-With-Medical-Complexity/Issue-Briefs-and-Reports/Optimizing-Health-Care-for-Children-With-Medical-Complexity

 https://www.childrenshospitals.org/Issues-and-Advocacy/Children-With-Medical-Complexity/Issue-Briefs-and-Reports/2015/Changes-included-in-the-ACE-Kids-Act-of-2015

http://www.speaknowforkids.org/ace_kids_act

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/126/4/789.full.pdf

 

Grant Shafer, MD