Advocacy and More

If you want a snapshot of the impressive range of work underway at the ACR, just look at the week of February 24. The highlight was our annual visit to Capitol Hill to encourage our elected representatives and their aides to pay attention to issues that are vital to both ACR/ARHP members and our patients. Our visit focused primarily on four issues: Medicare reimbursement for physician services (the Sustainable Growth Rate or SGR); the cascade of ongoing cuts to bone densitometry reimbursement that would render this test extinct in the physician’s office; the pending National Arthritis Act; and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, which is threatened by further reductions in the president’s proposed budget.

ACR’s Day on Capitol Hill

The turnout for our visits to the Hill was impressive—more than 150 ACR and ARHP members, about three-fold the number of participants in years past. This is vivid proof that rheumatologists and allied health professionals are not only concerned about the issues, but are willing to sacrifice their time and energy to do something about their concerns. Our group of advocates benefited from a day of education and training before the actual Congressional visits on Tuesday, February 26.

Planning and preparation by ACR staff for this program was superb. An address by Representative Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), who introduced a bill that would roll back the cuts in bone densitometry reimbursement, was one highlight. Rep. Berkley recounted the unusual and intriguing way in which she found out that she herself had osteoporosis: while dating a physician (now her husband), she was lured to his office on the pretext of testing out his new bone densitometry machine. This physician had guessed correctly that she was osteoporotic, and his astuteness led to diagnosis and treatment prior to any fractures. In Rep. Berkley, rheumatologists and their patients have an articulate, passionate, well-informed advocate whose sense of humor matches her dedication to the issue of musculoskeletal health.

How does the ACR pick the issues on which to lobby, and why focus on four?

Our advocacy professionals tell us that four is the maximum number of messages that can be effectively delivered. The Government Affairs Committee (GAC) sorts through the various issues to pick those that are both important and timely and that the ACR has some chance to influence. Position statements are crafted by the GAC, and reviewed by ACR officers and the board.