• Reintroduction of the Improving Seniors Timely Access to Care Act Issue: Support stremlining prior authorization procedures to be more seamless, automate, and transparent for physicians. No Surprises Act Issue: Support request for an oversight hearing on the implemenation of the No Surprises Act and its idependent disupute resolution (IDR) process
• Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Issue: Support measures to tranition the Medicare conversion factor to one based on an inflationary index. Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) Issue: Support request for an oversight hearing on the implementation of MACRA and physician-focused value-based care initiatives. H.R. 2474, Strengthening Medicare for Patients and Providers Act Support: This bill modifies certain adjustments to payment amounts under the Medicare physician fee schedule. Payment amounts under the Medicare physician fee schedule are based on a service's relative value, a conversion factor, and a geographic adjustment factor. Current law provides for separate conversion factors for physicians that are qualifying participants in advanced alternative payment models (also known as qualifying APM participants) and for other physicians beginning in 2026, with an annual update of 0.75% and 0.25%, respectively. The bill replaces the separate conversion factors for qualifying APM participants and other physicians with a single conversion factor and provides for an update that is equal to the annual percentage increase in the Medicare Economic Index, beginning in 2024. (The Medicare Economic Index is a specialized index that is generally used to determine allowed charges for physician services based on annual price changes.)
• H.R. 2819, The Good Samaritan Health Professionals Act Issue: Extend liability protection for harm caused by actsor omissions by volunteer health care professionals in the course of providing certain health care services during specified public-health or national emergencies or major disasters.

Duration: February 2, 2009 to October 31, 2023

General Issues: Insurance, Medicare/Medicaid, Torts, Health Issues, Medical/Disease Research/Clinical Labs, Pharmacy, Small Business, Taxation/Internal Revenue Code, Budget/Appropriations

Spending: about $3,421,398 (But it's complicated. Here's why.)

It can be tricky to figure out how much an organization spent on a particular lobbying engagement. The law only requires lobbyists to report the amount they were paid for federal lobbying each quarter rounded to the nearest $10,000—and if it's less than $3,000 in a given quarter (or less than $13,000 for organizations with in-house lobbyists), they don't have to disclose it at all. Plus, some organizations include spending that doesn’t belong in the report—for instance, money spent lobbying state governments or other legal work.

Agencies lobbied since 2009: U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, White House Office, Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Small Business Administration (SBA), Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), Health & Human Services - Dept of (HHS)

Affiliated organizations: North American Spine Society