Federal Government

The AOA's Department of Government Relations (DGR) along with the AOA's Bureau on Federal Health Programs, promotes AOA's health priorities to federal policymakers working in Washington, D.C.

DGR prepares recommendations based on policies set by the AOA House of Delegates, the current political landscape, and the AOA’s mission. The Bureau meets three times a year to discuss the progress on these initiatives and to add any additional legislative recommendations based on new actions taken by Congress.

State Government

Priority issues at the state and federal level include:

• Medical Malpractice (also known as Professional Liability) insurance: In communities nationwide, citizens are losing access to quality medical care. Skyrocketing liability insurance premiums are leading many doctors to cut services, leave litigious states, or abandon the practice of medicine altogether. As a result, patients lose access to affordable health care, hospitals close, and families lose doctors they've relied on for years
• Medicare reform: More and more physicians each year elect not to accept Medicare patients in their practice because they are losing money. Serious discrepancies currently exist between the cost of providing medical services and the current government method for reimbursing physicians for these services.
• Other issues: AOA has a number of other priority governmental issues. For more information, click AOA Priority Issues on the left.

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