Advocacy News

Sidney Gicheru, MD, medical director at Laser Care Eye Center in Dallas, was one of the top three fundraisers for the Academy’s special Protect Veterans’ Eyesight initiative this year. He recruited more than 85 of his friends and colleagues to donate to help defend the highest quality surgical eye care that our veterans deserve. We asked what motivated him.

Academy CEO Stephen McLeod, MD’s, testimony before the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health has helped put a spotlight on the Department of Veterans Affairs development of national standards or practice for optometry.

Academy CEO Stephen D. McLeod, MD, was among the leaders of organized medicine who testified Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health, arguing for surgery by surgeons in VA health facilities.  

Academy leaders made the case for protecting veterans’ access to quality eye care at an Aug. 31 listening session, hosted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The listening session is part of the VA’s efforts to develop national standards of practice for health care workers, including optometrists.

With a growing number of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in managed care arrangements, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General plans to scrutinize the programs to address waste, fraud and abuse.

As policymakers look to drive new payment models, the Academy outlined how we believe the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services can make new payment models accessible to medical specialties like ophthalmology.

In a win for patients, Humana announced it will stop requiring prior authorization for cataract and YAG surgery for Medicare Advantage members in Georgia, effective Aug. 1.

About 3,500 hospitals and 6,000 ambulatory surgical centers (ASC) that perform ophthalmic procedures would be affected by the proposed pay hike.  

We are working with Congress to fix Medicare’s broken payment system, highlighting the need to fix a physician payment program that fails to account for inflation and increasing practice costs.

HHS and MedPAC Reports Encourage Significant Changes to Part B Drug Payment The Academy is monitoring congressional reaction to these reports given that the recommendations would impact ophthalmologists.