Advocacy
state level
The 2019 legislative session saw an unprecedented number of scope of practice expansion bills, including a physical therapy bill which would give patients direct access to physical therapy without a physician referral and a podiatry bill, which would expand the scope of practice for podiatry to include treatment of disorders of the foot, ankle, and lower leg. By replacing education with legislation, these dangerous bills would have lowered the quality of care in Alabama.
Find Your alabama Legislator
House of Representatives
Alabama Senate
NATIONAL LEVEL
A successful advocacy strategy requires direct engagement with members of Congress and their staff. As a key ongoing function, the AAOS Office of Government Relations (OGR) facilitates such engagement both in legislators’ offices and at political events.
Each year, the Board of Councilors, Board of Specialty Societies, and other select AAOS members gather in Washington, D.C., as part of the National Orthopaedic Leadership Conference (NOLC) to learn more about current trends in healthcare policy and to make crucial visits to Capitol Hill.
This year, approximately 350 orthopaedic surgeons participated in the event on June 6, resulting in 390 legislative office visits involving lawmakers from nearly every state. The Council on Advocacy selected the discussion topics, which included the Hospital Competition Act of 2019, the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2019, and the issue of patients receiving surprise medical bills following both emergency and nonemergency care. The topics were chosen for their relevance to patient care and for the ways they have the potential to lower healthcare costs—two important themes in the 116th Congress.
AOS is represented at the national level by the AAOS Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C. This office identifies, analyzes, and directs all health policy activities and initiatives of the AAOS.
For National information contact: www.aaos.org