Advocacy News

In response to pleas from the physician community, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced plans to make advanced payments available for Part B providers and suppliers experiencing claims disruptions because of the Change Healthcare/Optum Payment Disruption issue.

During a virtual roundtable hosted by the American Medical Association, the Academy raised concerns with adopting broad, single specialty MIPS Value Pathways and urged CMS to focus on specific conditions or episodes of care.

The Academy, with American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, American Society of Retina Specialists, American Glaucoma Society, and the Retina Society, submitted comments discouraging the adoption of a single, specialty-wide MIPS Value Pathway reporting option.

The Academy’s advocacy efforts continue following our successful campaign to have problematic new local coverage determination policies for minimally invasive glaucoma surgery withdrawn at the end of 2023.

After months of Academy advocacy, Medicare administrative contractor WPS has released a finalized coverage policy for cataract surgery that abandons a proposed indication that a patient has a best corrected vision of 20/50 or worse.  

We urged changes to the proposed cataract cost measure specifications, including a call to risk adjust for social determinants of health.

In recognition of our ophthalmology coalition’s concerns, five Medicare administrative contractors have canceled problematic glaucoma surgery coverage policies that were scheduled to begin Jan. 29.

Hundreds of your colleagues have already told legislators to include payment relief in any bill that addresses the Jan. 19 government funding deadline. Add your voice and help protect patient access to care.

In a meeting with five Medicare administrative contractors on Wednesday, the Academy and our ophthalmology coalition highlighted inconsistencies in the local coverage determination review process and called for the policies to be significantly revised or scrapped entirely before the policies take effect on Jan. 29.

The Academy and our ophthalmic coalition have succeeded in delaying implementation of new minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) local coverage determination policies.