ASPS Executive Committee Approves 2020 Policy Priorities
ASPS's 2020 policy priority development process kicked off last spring in the lead up to the 2019 ASPS Advocacy Summit, during which fly-in attendees and representative cohorts of ASPS's general membership were surveyed simultaneously to gather data on the issues that matter most to plastic surgeons and their patients. Following that outreach, ASPS advocacy staff surveyed Legislative Advocacy Committee (LAC) members to round out a dataset that was made available to LAC and ASPS leaders when approving the final priorities for this year. In total, respondents weighed in on 23 potential state and 21 potential federal issues.
Though newer in practice, this process has proven successful over the last two years, as ASPS has continued its role as a strong advocate that casts a broad net, while also focusing on specific issues that are higher priorities to members. Those "core" priorities, which see the bulk of ASPS's attention, include protecting patients from non-physician professionals who are seeking to expand their scope of practice and ensuring that practitioners cannot advertise in false or misleading ways.
The Society has continued its efforts to safeguard physician reimbursement for out-of-network services, as that issue has seen an influx of activity at the federal level in addition to the ongoing frenzy at the state level. Other issues that ASPS will be advocating on this year include ensuring that physicians are currently and correctly privileged for the procedures they are performing, opposing efforts to tax cosmetic surgery, and ensuring patients with congenital anomalies have insurance coverage for all necessary procedures.