The Society continues efforts to promote incentives for infection control and other non-patient care activities. IDSA recently urged Medicare to give shared savings programs the flexibility to incentivize these activities, which offer the potential to achieve significant systems-level savings. In a November letter to Medicare officials, IDSA also called on the agency to conduct a Home Infusion Therapy Demonstration Project.

In a related letter, IDSA urged the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) to support incentive payments for infection control and other non-patient care activities within accountable care organizations (ACOs) and other shared savings arrangements focused on improving the quality and efficiency of patient care. Separately, IDSA urged in a December letter that MedPAC— in future analyses of physician payments—draw a distinction between cognitive and procedural specialties, and not just compare primary care physicians to all specialties.

Other recent IDSA advocacy efforts include:

• In comments submitted in November, IDSA called for extensive revisions to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s draft guidance to industry on clinical trial designs for antibiotics to treat acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSIs). The Society cited the guidance’s potentially negative impact on patients’ access to new, life-saving drugs. The comments detailed specific areas of concern and recommendations for revisions.
  
  
• IDSA urged lawmakers to provide funding to fully implement the recommendations contained in the administration’s Medical Countermeasures Review report, which was issued in August. In a November letter to members of Congress involved in the budget, the Society underscored the importance of funding the improvements to reduce serious public health threats, such as pandemic influenza, potential biological weapons, and emerging infectious diseases, particularly antimicrobial-resistant infections.

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