The federal No Surprises Act (NSA), implemented in 2022, represents an important step forward in protecting patients from surprise medical bills and improving transparency within the health care system. Unfortunately, the NSA’s flawed implementation has revealed significant problems for physicians seeking to navigate the law to secure appropriate payments. ASA is actively advancing solutions to meet these challenges and ensure the NSA works as intended for anesthesiologists.

There are no doubt similarities among anesthesiologists within each generation, but there seem to be limited actionable implications for analyzing workforce economics, health care quality, or patient safety. When it comes to meeting the needs of a medical specialty, ASA gets it right by focusing on career stages, identifying perceptions and preferences through its biennial member surveys, and providing excellent individualized customer service.

If we ever hope to minimize the barriers prohibiting our colleagues from seeking appropriate mental health care, it needs to become something we can discuss as openly as we do any other medical issue any of us experiences. In that spirit, I will share that I was diagnosed with depression a year and a half ago. I recognized that the challenges and stresses that I had faced and conquered in the past were becoming an increasingly greater challenge to overcome.

With the issues of USP <797> now settled, our members have an opportunity to implement a renewed focus on continuing education on sterile pharmaceutical development, as well as on the proper handling, preparation, and administration of medications with an emphasis on patient safety and care quality. On the advocacy front, we can turn our attention to supporting increased state and federal funding to better educate health care professionals on the best practices and federal, state, and local policies for preparing and administering medications.