COVID-19 Pandemic Relief
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Academy's Washington, D.C., staff have continued to advocate and engage Congress. OPHTHPAC®, the Academy’s political action committee, has been working to ensure that elected officials understand what financial resources are needed for your practice to remain available to care for your communities both during and after the pandemic.
As Congress developed COVID-19 relief legislation, the Academy leveraged OPHTHPAC's congressional relationships with health care champions to ensure that ophthalmology practices received assistance from a new public health and provider relief fund. Thanks in part to those efforts:
- Congress has approved a total of $175 billion to date in provider relief funding.
- Ophthalmology practices could qualify for small business loans like the new Paycheck Protection Program, which includes opportunities for loan forgiveness, and the Small Business Administration's Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, including access to $10,000 emergency grants.
- Congress suspended the 2% sequestration cuts to Medicare payments starting May 1. The suspension ends Dec. 31.
- Physician practices received tax relief to help weather the crisis.
- Most recently, Congress enacted improvements to the terms of the Medicare advance payments that many ophthalmology practices received.
The Academy is working with the physician community to educate Congress on the status of physician practices during the public health emergency and the need to continue and expand these programs.