Advocacy News

Your support helps OPHTHPAC work for physician-friendly candidates to replace them.

Military veterans’ eye care, physician payment reform, reducing practice burdens, ensuring patients’ timely access to needed treatments, and increasing member engagement will drive the Academy’s 2024 advocacy efforts on behalf of ophthalmology patients and practices.

A new round of floor speeches highlighted the bipartisan agreement among members of the House of Representatives that there is urgent need for Medicare payment relief.

Our Congressional champions urged their colleagues to provide short-term relief and long-term stability for the system. Join their call by using our advocacy tool to contact your members of Congress.

Committee action in the House and Senate this week focused on Medicare, with hearings on Academy priorities to improve patient access to care, including policies to reform prior authorization and update the Medicare physician payment system.

This unusual move by MedPAC, which advises Congress, signals growing awareness of the need for Medicare payment reform.  

We shared several ideas on how to reform physician payment to address both the growing number of annual cuts you face and long-term stability for the Medicare system.  

Ophthalmology department chairs of several leading medical schools have sent letters to the VA undersecretary for health expressing concern for a recent change to community care guidelines.

Ophthalmologist and U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks sent a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Health expressing concern that the agency removed language from community care guidelines allowing only ophthalmologists to perform invasive procedures.

In a 50-plus-page letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator, we urged the agency to engage with Congress to ensure appropriate physician reimbursement and reform of the Medicare payment system.