Advocacy News

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.

The state legislature has revived a bill that would expand optometric surgery. A committee hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9.

In the first step in a renewed effort to end cataract prior authorization requirements for Medicare Advantage patients in Florida, the Academy and our coalition partners demanded data from Aetna to back up its rationale for maintaining the policy in a single state. Florida members: Join us by sharing your stories with the Academy.

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.

Advocacy works. Aetna has confirmed that starting Jan. 1, it will stop requiring prior authorization for cataract surgeries in Georgia.

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

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is approving some 2022 MIPS targeted review requests made by retina groups who were inappropriately scored on the diabetes episode-based cost measure.

Medicare administrative contractor WPS said last week it will revise its recently released final local coverage determination policy for minimally invasive glaucoma surgery following objections raised by the Academy and our ophthalmic partners. 

After major Medicare contractors released identical coverage policies that would limit patients’ access to sight-saving care, the Academy spearheaded a joint effort with ophthalmic specialists to ask CMS to intervene and halt implementation.

Four more Medicare administrative contractors published their final local coverage determinations for glaucoma surgical procedures today, following the lead of WPS. The policies will take effect Dec. 24.