Make Advocacy Your New Year’s Resolution: AADA’s Top Advocacy Priorities
The AADA’s top priority is Medicare payment policies.3 In addition, the AADA is working on drug access and cost by cutting the bureaucratic red tape caused by prior authorization (PA) and step therapy policies. The AADA collaborates with manufacturers, the health care community, policymakers, private payers, pharmacists, pharmacy benefit managers, and patients to minimize and/or eliminate barriers that patients face in accessing needed medications. Specifically, the AADA advocates for legislation that limits obstacles associated with health insurance step therapy requirements, streamlines PA, and prohibits mid-year formulary changes.8
Step therapy requires that patients first try a medication specified by the insurance company; the therapy must fail before the patient is placed on the medication originally prescribed by the provider. Regarding PA, the AADA tries to ensure that determinations are standardized, requires the speed of determinations to be quantified and minimized, and ensures that PA and appeals policies do not unduly burden physicians or patients in accessing optimal drug therapy.8
Another advocacy priority is telehealth. The AADA is advocating for legislation on expansion of telehealth in underserved areas and modifications to state licensure requirements, liability issues, and reimbursement for store-and-forward technology. The AADA is involved in protecting scope of practice, truth in advertising, and access to specialty care, as well as monitoring legislation and regulation concerning the potential environmental impact of sunscreen ingredients, indoor tanning restrictions, and skin cancer prevention.8
Advocacy Matters and Makes a Difference—It is important to learn about and support advocacy priorities and efforts and join forces to protect your practice. The AADA advocacy priorities are to protect the value of dermatology services, mobilize dermatologists for political action, ensure dermatologists can participate in new payment models, and strengthen the profession.9 Physician advocacy is no longer an elective pursuit. We need to be involved and engaged through our medical societies to help patients, communities, and ourselves. All of us are in it together, and a collaborative collective voice can make a difference. Take action, join the AADA, and contact Congress today to stop Medicare payment cuts (https://takeaction.aad.org/).