WASHINGTON – The American Academy of Ophthalmology is pleased to announce that today The Hill newspaper listed the Academy’s Governmental Affairs team as one of the most effective groups to lobby on behalf of physicians. The Academy’s Governmental Affairs office, led by Vice President Catherine Cohen, is one of only nine groups, and one of only two representing specialties, selected by The Hill, a newspaper focusing specifically on Congress. The Hill article can be found at: http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/020106_lobbyleague.html

Ms. Cohen and her team enjoyed a successful year in 2005. Among the year’s highlights is the passage of Academy-backed legislation to regulate all contact lenses, including cosmetic lenses, as medical devices. Another achievement was building a coalition of groups that persuaded the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid not to proceed with a costly new method of calculating indirect practice expense that would have disadvantaged ophthalmologists. The Governmental Affairs group has been very active in the debate over Medicare physician payment reform, including working to fix the Sustainable Growth Formula and to ensure fairness to ophthalmology in the development of a pay for performance Medicare reimbursement system.