ACR Volunteer Leaders Visit Capitol Hill, Lobby for 5 Issues

“I think we were pretty well received,” she added. “Sometimes you can tell they’re not interested at all, and I didn’t get that from any of the staffers we met.”

“This year seemed to be smooth, one of the best fly-ins we have had,” said Mr. Cooper, who has been with the ACR since 2011. “The advocates seemed well prepared and enthusiastic.”

Ms. Crawford and Dr. Worthing noted that lawmakers and their staffers better understand the issues nowadays. “I used to feel like nobody even understood what we were talking about,” Ms. Crawford said. Now, “I feel like [almost] everybody understood what we were talking about.

“We are not doing as much baseline education,” she added, “and that’s a result of all the education that’s been done.”

Advocates used to spend the first five minutes of every meeting explaining what rheumatologists do, said Dr. Worthing, a partner with Arthritis and Rheumatism Associates, Washington, D.C., who has been active on the Hill while volunteering for the ACR over the past 10 years. “Now, we spend a lot less time introducing ourselves, because we have successfully educated people about who we are,” he said. “It was good to know our visits have made an impact.”

Impacts have been made on other fronts, too. The same day the group visited the Hill, a Democrat and Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives co-sponsored a bill (nicknamed the EMPOWER for Health Act), introduced in part to issue educational loan repayments to pediatric rheumatologists (among other pediatric subspecialists).

Rheumatology professionals and Mr. Cooper are optimistic about Congress supporting (and possibly passing bills on) the ACR’s key issues—particularly the chances for the DXA bill, Safe Step Act and EMPOWER for Health Act. The Safe Step Act could be combined with another bill, Mr. Cooper said, while the EMPOWER for Health Act has support from powerful co-sponsors.

“Each of these initiatives has a really good chance of success,” Dr. Worthing said. “We pick reforms that are common sense and already have bipartisan support.”

“We are not asking for huge salary increases,” Dr. Mehta said. “We are not asking for all of the NIH budget to go to rheumatology. We are asking for small changes that would make a big difference for patients and in our field.”

Ms. Crawford is also optimistic. Last year nobody discussed prior authorization on the federal level, she noted, and since this event, such legislation has been introduced in the House. “All you can do is kick it a little further down the street every time you go. Every year some things stick,” she said.

On the opposite side of the experience spectrum, Dr. Mehta participated in his first ACR advocacy event. “It was a really enjoyable experience overall,” he said. “It’s really inspired me to make a difference at the state level.” After the event, Dr. Mehta signed up to be an ACR contact to work with specified legislators. “[An advocacy event] is something that every person in our field should try to do at least once,” he said.