Academy advocacy priorities
The advocacy arm of the Academy, the American Academy of Dermatology Association (AADA) provides a voice to dermatologists, ensuring that public policies address the ever-changing needs of practices and patient care. The AADA provides members with valuable resources and tools to adapt to the shifting health care landscape while contributing to policies that protect the quality of and access to dermatologic care.
Advocacy priorities include:
 | Access to Compounded Medications: Guarding against restrictions on board-certified dermatologists’ ability to prepare, administer, and prescribe compounded medications, which is integral to their provision of value-based patient care. Advocating with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) Convention to ensure any guidance or standards, respectively, do not place unreasonable and burdensome restrictions on the practice of medicine and physician-patient relationship. Also includes fighting, as needed, state pharmacy board regulation of physicians preparing compounded medications in the clinical setting. |
 | Access to Specialty Care through Private and Public Payers: Ensuring adequate and accurate information is available about provider directories for both private and public payers; advocating for appropriate reimbursement for services provided; ensuring that policies within the Medicare program and resulting from implementation of the VA Mission Act, which gives veterans more options to seek care among community providers, facilitate beneficiary access to the full range of specialists including Mohs surgeons, as needed. |
 | Health Care Market Consolidation/Preserving Private Practice: With the current trend toward mergers among health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, etc., and the purchase of practices by private equity firms, health systems and other corporate entities, working to preserve the ability of physicians to own/operate their own practices and maintain competitiveness. |
 | Medicare Physician Payment Policy: Advocating for fair reimbursement under the current fee-for-service program; working across dermatology and within the House of Medicine to preserve the 10- and 90-day global period payments for medical procedures, and in recognition of the challenges implicit with that effort, also working on alternative strategies. Remaining vigilant as the Administration has started taking up some of the limiting strategies of private payers such as prior authorization and reducing payments when E/M services are reported with procedures. |
 | Pharmaceutical Access and Affordability: Working in collaboration with all stakeholders to minimize and/or eliminate barriers that patients face in accessing needed medications, including modifications to step therapy and prior authorization policies as well as efforts to address rising drug prices and drug shortages. Also includes supporting efforts to improve price transparency and to advocate for policies that will encourage competition to lower the cost of medications and improve access to treatment for patients. |
 | Scope-of-Practice and Truth in Advertising: Working with all stakeholders to appropriately define the practice of medicine, to ensure a physician-led, team-based approach to care through the adoption or modification of regulations to ensure that, as the workforce expands to include greater use of non-physician clinicians, structures are in place to ensure a focus on the highest level, appropriate care and to ensure patient safety. Also includes promoting state laws that require transparency and accuracy in marketing medical training and education so that patients are clear on who is providing their health care. Learn more about advocacy related to scope-of-practice. |
 | Skin Cancer Prevention, Access to Sunscreen and Indoor Tanning Restrictions: Advocating at the federal and state levels to educate policymakers about skin cancer prevention and detection, and to promote increased regulation of indoor tanning. Working to bridge the interests of sunscreen manufacturers and federal regulators to ensure fair consideration of new sunscreen ingredients based on scientific evidence and demonstration of patient/consumer safety. Also includes advocating for the continued availability of existing sunscreen formulations, as the adverse potential effects related to absorption levels of all UV-filters in humans and wildlife is an emerging science and further investigation is required to understand how different filters affect the environment and human health. Learn more about advocacy related to sunscreen. |
 | Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) Reform: Ensuring that policies under the Quality Payment Program, created by the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), which seek to improve the quality and value of care are evidence-based, involve physician input, and improve patient care without overly burdensome documentation and compliance activity. |
State priorities
Download a concise fact sheet on Academy advocacy priorities at the state level (PDF download).
Download state prioritiesRelated Academy resource
Advocacy contacts
Barbara Greenan, Senior Vice President, Advocacy
(202) 712-2602
bgreenan@aad.org
Beth Laws, MBA, Director, Advocacy & Policy Operations
(202) 712-2600
blaws@aad.org
Jada Chandler, Project Coordinator, Advocacy & Policy
(202) 609-6302
jchandler@aad.org
Federal legislative, political & grassroots advocacy staff:
Shawn Friesen, Director, Legislative, Political and Grassroots Advocacy
(202) 712-2601
sfriesen@aad.org
Christine O’Connor, Associate Director, Congressional Policy
(202) 609-6330
coconnor@aad.org
Jennifer Mangone, JD, Manager, Congressional Policy
(202) 609-3333
jmangone@aad.org
Meredith Allison, Manager, Political Affairs
(202) 712-2604
mallison@aad.org
Regulatory & payment policy staff:
Chad Appel, Director, Public Policy and Healthcare Economics
(202) 712-2614
CAppel@aad.org
William Brady, Associate Director, Health Care Policy
(847) 240-1824
WBrady@aad.org
Helen Olkaba, MS, Assistant Director, Health Care Economics
(202) 609-2612
holkaba@aad.org
Louis A. Terranova, Assistant Director, Practice Advocacy
(847) 240-1465
lterranova@aad.org
Becky Dolan, Manager, Practice Advocacy
(847) 240-1825
bdolan@aad.org
State policy staff:
Lisa Albany, Director, State Policy
(202) 712-2615
lalbany@aad.org
Victoria Pasko, Assistant Director, State Policy
(202) 609-6331
vpasko@aad.org
