1/4/2010
NAAOP Priorities and Accomplishments
NAAOP’s 2010 Priorities
• NAAOP will continue to take the lead to enact legislation creating an “Injured and Amputee Veterans Bill of Rights.” NAAOP has worked throughout 2009 on amending H.R. 5730 and this legislation is expected to be reintroduced by the House VA Committee Chairman in early 2010.
• NAAOP will continue advocating for the interests of O&P patients and providers in the final and critical stages of the negotiations on national health system reform, including on priorities such as insurance reforms, inclusion of O&P benefits in the essential benefits package, and defining O&P separately from durable medical equipment (DME).
• NAAOP will work to secure a positive CPI-U update for the Medicare O&P fee schedule in 2011. After a year with a negative CPI-U in 2009, NAAOP worked together with the Alliance organizations to advocate that CMS not impose a negative update in 2010, and they agreed.
• NAAOP will continue to work in concert with the O&P Alliance to press CMS to issue appropriate regulations interpreting the Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (“BIPA”) that are designed to heighten qualifications and competency requirements on suppliers and providers of O&P care.
• NAAOP will reinvigorate its longstanding O&P research mission by participating in a Veterans Administration State of the Art Research Conference and working with the House, Senate, and federal agencies to enhance the federal focus on O&P research.
NAAOP’s 2009 Accomplishments
• NAAOP drafted and recommended legislative language to amend H.R. 5730 in preparation for reintroduction of the Injured and Amputee Veterans Bill of Rights in the 111th Congress. NAAOP also secured the commitment from Chairman Filner (D-CA) from the House Veterans Affairs Committee to introduce and pass the bill.
• NAAOP spearheaded an initiative to work with other disability and consumer groups to have Congress include specific references to coverage of O&P care in the essential benefits package under national health care reform. A number of related issues arose in the context of this massive bill that NAAOP helped spot, analyze, and then worked with others to address.
• NAAOP worked with the O&P Alliance to continue to press CMS to finally regulate the O&P provider qualifications provisions of the BIPA law, a long-overdue regulation that would link Medicare payments to O&P qualifications.
• NAAOP kept its membership (and the broader O&P community) informed during the health reform debate through detailed monthly memos and articles in industry publications.
