EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/387844
29 EW NEWS & OPINION October 2014 "I've felt a connection to Guatemala for a long time but have never been here. … I was told by [Dr. Chang] and Dr. Crandall that there's only one eye surgeon for 800,000 people, so there's just too many cataracts that go untreated. It's exciting to be a part of such an esteemed group to try to help these people." –Sen. Rand Paul, MD started going down and it's been going down every year ever since. So that's an issue that I have some perspective on. [The SGR] was al- ways a bad formula—now everyone acknowledges it because every year we've repealed the formula for about 14 years in a row. My point is, being a logical person [and this] being a bad policy, why don't we repeal it? They say, "The way the formula is scored by the Congressional Budget Office [CBO], we have to please the score people"—but nobody elected the CBO. They elected you to make decisions, so let's fix it. If it s bad law, let's get rid of it. There's getting to be a little more of a consensus on that, but it's like pulling teeth to get anybody to allow a vote and to al- low it to move forward. Probably the biggest frustration in Washington is that even when we agree, we still can't get something done, largely because the leadership doesn't allow any votes. So you can't even vote on the things you might agree on. Dr. Chang: I want to thank you again for speaking at our ASCRS annual meeting, where you were the guest speaker at our Government Relations session. We had a packed audience, and they really enjoyed hearing you speak. It seemed like you were giving people a little bit of a hopeful message, in terms of the future direction of medicine. Sen. Paul: I think there is, and I tell physicians you need to be involved. Your congressman needs to know your name—not just that you need to know your congressman's name, but they need to know your name. They need to know what you're interested in, they need to know the hurdles that physicians have to overcome. You don't have any right to complain if you don't get involved. Every physician should be involved—emails, writing to your congressman, calling them—and they do listen. Most of them are not dead set against what we would like to have happen in medicine; they just need some explanations. Dr. Chang: Finally, I want to thank you on behalf of ASCRS and on behalf of all physicians—but partic- ularly ophthalmologists. You have been such a great ally to us, and you've helped us with a lot of issues where we simply needed help to explain what the problem was. This has been invaluable for us and for our patients, so thank you. Sen. Paul: Well, you know the real reason I came down here is I figured I could get a free phaco course from you and Dr. Crandall! EW