SGR repeal, PSA access among AUA priorities in ’14

Promotion of strategies for the repeal of the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula and preservation of access to appropriate PSA screening are among the AUA’s top legislative priorities for 2014, the association announced.

The priorities were based on a survey of the AUA membership. The AUA’s Board of Directors approved the priorities during its annual winter meeting earlier this month.

“The AUA invested in engaging its members in the development of this list through a series of focus groups and in-depth online surveys to ensure that its priorities reflected urologists’ needs and concerns. While some items are issues for which we’ve been advocating for quite some time, others are new to the list, including medical liability reform and research funding,” said AUA Legislative Affairs Committee Chair James C. Ulchaker, MD.

More than 700 members participated in the research phase of this initiative, which included a qualitative survey, fielded in the fall of 2013.

This year’s list of priorities includes:

• promote viable strategies for SGR repeal and promotion of value in health care

• preserve access to appropriate PSA screening

• advance reform of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation process

• preservation and appropriate use of the in-office ancillary services exception to the Stark law

• oppose or defer implementation of ICD-10

• address work force shortages in all urologic practice environments (ie, community and academic practice), preserve access to timely and appropriate care, and advocate for increased graduate medical education funding and resources for urology positions

• advocate repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board or modification of the current law to provide for congressional oversight of their decisions, appointment of practicing physicians, and review by medical specialty societies

• promote medical liability reform

• promote urology/cancer research funding.

“In recent months, Congress has made exciting progress on many key issues important to urologists, and we are hopeful that 2014 will offer more opportunities for significant change. We look forward to advancing these issues with lawmakers on behalf of the AUA membership,” Dr. Ulchaker said.

The AUA’s list of legislative priorities guides the association’s activities on Capitol Hill and is reviewed and updated regularly. In 2013, one of the AUA’s legislative priorities, urotrauma, was addressed by Congress and included as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014.

In the March 2014 issue of Urology Times, look for UT Washington correspondent Bob Gatty’s in-depth analysis of the AUA’s legislative priorities for 2014.

To get weekly news from the leading news source for urologists, subscribe to the Urology Times eNews.