UOAA’s Advocacy Public Policy Priorities
Learn More About UOAA’s Priority Issues That Ostomy Activists Are Advocating For Right Now.
As the voice and leading organization advocating for people living with an ostomy, UOAA is witness to the stories and experiences communicated by ostomates and understands the vital importance of access to quality ostomy care.
UOAA is of the opinion that access to an outpatient ostomy clinic improves quality of life and ensures an ostomate can achieve goals of care for prosthetic function to maintain health and wellness physically, emotionally, and financially. UOAA supports increasing outpatient services and ostomy clinics to fill the gap in care available to people living with ostomies.
UOAA Position Statement for Supporting Outpatient Ostomy Clinics
UOAA urges legislators and federal agency officials to implement policy and regulations that benefit patient-centered access to care, strengthen the patient-provider decision-making relationship, and minimize patient out-of-pocket costs.
In conjunction with the Digestive Disease National Coalition (DDNC) we will continue to support efforts that urge legislators and federal agency officials to implement policy and regulations that benefit patient access to care by strengthening the patient-provider decision-making relationship, limiting patient out-of-pocket spending, and curbing the ability of third-party payers to shift overly burdensome costs onto patients. Below are toolkits for use in your own advocacy work:
UOAA advocates for and strives to ensure that any person living with a permanent or temporary ostomy has access to their prescribed choice of medical prosthetic technology. We are committed to preserving and promoting access, choice and value of ostomy and urological products.
UOAA supports these guiding principles.
2022 Federal Comments for the Medicare Advantage Program
UOAA Joins Efforts to Protect Ostomy Supplies and Endorses White Paper
UOAA Supports Medicare/Medicaid Supply Coverage for Fistulas
UOAA Opposes Non-Medical Switching of Ostomy Prosthetic Supplies
DDNC White Paper on Patient Access to Care and Treatments in the Cost-Shifting Era
Opposition Statement On Medicare Competitive Bidding Program
Update on Competitive Bidding Program as of December 2022:
As a stakeholder in the Access and Care Coalition, UOAA is actively working with all of the stakeholder members to maintain the current Medicare reimbursement system for ostomy and urological products.
For now ostomy and urological supplies remain excluded from the CBP. We will continue to be vigilant on this issue and educate key decision-makers on how this impacts people living with an ostomy so that all ostomates have access to the ostomy supplies that they need.
No current action is necessary from ostomates at this time.
We will provide further updates as they become available.
UOAA strives to protect the rights of people with an ostomy or continent diversion and eliminate discrimination at school, work, and elsewhere in their lives to ensure they are accepted as normal, healthy individuals. At the national level UOAA advocates for legislation that will improve their rights, protections and access.
UOAA Supports The Air Carrier Amendments Act (H.R. 1267/S. 545)