Campaign for Patient Access
Write Your Local Media
This part of the campaign invited patients and supporters to put the issue in their own words. Visitors could send a letter or personal anecdote describing how the proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule cuts might affect their access to cardiovascular care, and why the campaign argued the cuts should be reversed.
Submissions were intended to be shared with news outlets in the contributor's area, helping communities understand the local stakes behind the national policy debate described in The Issue.
How Stories Moved Forward
The page also outlined ways for patients to contact their representatives directly, and offered a set of pre-written tweets so supporters could raise the issue on social media without drafting their own message from scratch.
- Submit a personal story or letter for possible use with local news outlets.
- Read stories shared by other patients and supporters.
- Use provided sample tweets to join the conversation online.
- Find prompts for contacting congressional representatives.
Background
This story-sharing effort was one piece of the broader campaign the American College of Cardiology launched in December 2009 to oppose Medicare physician fee schedule cuts. Related background on the underlying policy dispute, including the ACC's legal challenge over the 2010 fee schedule, is covered on the Legal Action and Newsroom pages.
Patients looking for more general context on how the proposed cuts related to cardiovascular care access can visit the For Patients section.