Why Is Advocacy Essential?
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons is the only organization in Washington, DC, specifically dedicated to representing the interests of cardiothoracic surgeons and their patients.
Through decades of advocacy, STS has helped guide policymakers on key challenges created by the rapidly evolving health care environment. Our relentless efforts ensure that the interests of STS members and their patients are effectively represented before influential entities such as the US Congress, federal agencies, and various healthcare coalitions.
How to Get Involved
STS members can easily contact their legislators about pressing issues through the new STS grassroots advocacy site. Log in to read about key issues, locate your elected officials, and send personalized messages about the causes that concern cardiothoracic surgeons and their patients.
STS's 2026 Advocacy Priorities
- Reform Medicare Payments: Urge policymakers to halt harmful surgical care cuts and enact reforms that ensure stable, sustainable reimbursement.
- Secure Coverage and Reimbursement: Work with payors and stakeholders to ensure that cardiothoracic (CT) procedures are covered and reimbursed appropriately.
- Ensure Procedures Occur in Appropriate Care Settings: Advocate for policies that require CT procedures to be performed in appropriate care settings with the necessary resources to ensure patient safety.
- Reduce Administrative Burdens: Reform prior authorization requirements that impede access to care.
- Advocate for Effective Medicare Payment Models: Refine value-based payment models and advocate inclusion of STS quality measures to ensure fair and accurate measurement.
- Advance the STS Mobile Lung Cancer Screening Initiative: Advocate for funding and resources to support mobile lung cancer screening programs and increase access to early detection.
- Maintain Preventative Coverage: Ensure coverage of lung cancer screening based on the best evidence available without administrative hurdles like prior authorization or cost-sharing for patients.
- Foster Collaboration: Ensure that Medicare coverage requires a cardiothoracic surgeon’s involvement on the heart team for patient selection and procedures.
- Advance Access to Innovative Treatments: Highlight the critical role of CT surgeons in ensuring patient access to cutting-edge therapies while upholding the highest standards of safety.
- Protect Access to Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Surgical Care: Strengthen the specialized surgical workforce and policies that support care for children and adults with congenital heart disease.
- Invest in Training Cardiothoracic Surgeons: Support raising the cap on Medicare-supported residency positions and providing support for surgeons in training.
- End Physician Non-Compete Agreements: Protect policies that end non-compete agreements and prohibit artificial barriers for employed physicians.
- Improve Physician Wellness: Promote programs that foster resilience, reduce burnout, and provide comprehensive wellness benefits.
- Secure Access to Claims Data: Enable clinician-led registries to utilize federal claims data for assessing care quality, efficacy, and accelerating patient access to innovative treatments.
- Illustrate the Benefits of Real-World Evidence: Use the ACC/STS TVT Registry™ to demonstrate the positive impact of real-world data on policy decisions and Coverage with Evidence Development.
- Advance Interoperability and Standardization: Promote interoperable data systems and standardized elements such as imaging formats and unique device identifiers.
- Support Research Funding Through Appropriations: Maintain or increase research funding for federal agencies and programs, such as but not limited to, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Lung Cancer Research Program.
*Pending Board Approval
*The order of policies above does not indicate their relative priority.
Key Issues
Active engagement and involvement by STS members at the grassroots level is crucial for the collective success of cardiothoracic surgery.
STS-PAC
STS-PAC is the only political action committee that exclusively represents and fights for cardiothoracic surgeons and their patients in Washington, D.C.
When STS members* contribute to the PAC, the STS-PAC Board of Advisors approves support in a nonpartisan way for candidates and elected officials based on their advocacy priorities, roles on committees of jurisdiction, and relationships with STS members. When pro-cardiothoracic surgery candidates win elections, they bolster the presence of our allies on Capitol Hill and help advance STS priorities.
* Contributions to STS-PAC are voluntary and not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes. You have the right to decline to contribute without any reprisal against your STS membership. Your contribution must be made using a credit card, check or money order, and must be drawn on a personal account to be used to support federal candidates. You must be a US citizen or lawfully admitted permanent US resident to contribute. Federal law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer of each individual whose contributions exceed $200 in a calendar year. Federal law prohibits STS and STS-PAC from soliciting contributions from persons outside STS’s restricted class. STS’s restricted class includes individuals who are dues paying members or non-dues paying members with voting rights, and who are US citizens or lawfully admitted permanent US residents.