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Advocacy & Policy

AGA PAC

AGA PAC is the voluntary member, bipartisan political arm of AGA. As the only PAC dedicated to gastroenterology, our mission is to increase our members’ presence on Capitol Hill and support legislators and candidates who protect the needs of GI patients and health care professionals.

AGA PAC: Your voice in Washington

Decisions made by lawmakers in Washington, D.C. today may affect how you provide patient care for years to come. Fortunately, you have a voice on Capitol Hill through the AGA political action committee (PAC), which advocates for policies that support GI clinicians and researchers and access to high-quality care.

AGA PAC supports AGA’s government affairs agenda by contributing to the campaigns of political candidates — regardless of  their  party affiliation — whose public policy priorities align with our own.

Our mission

AGA PAC is dedicated to increasing our members’ presence on Capitol Hill and supporting congressional candidates who protect the needs of GI patients and health care professionals. 

AGA PAC 2023 Annual Report

Thank you to the 432 AGA members who collectively contributed $83,678 to AGA PAC. See what we accomplished in 2023.

AGA federal policy priorities

AGA PAC advocacy priorities
We are fighting against prior authorization policiesurging Medicare to eliminate cost sharing for screening colonoscopy when a polyp is removed and requesting an appeals process when your patients are subjected to step therapy “fail first” insurance protocols.

We are calling on Congress to improve the current Medicare physician payment system to ensure continued beneficiary access to care. The Medicare physician payment system’s budget neutrality requirement negatively impacts all physicians and has not kept pace with medical inflation or the cost of providing care to Medicare beneficiaries. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these issues. The current Quality Payment Program (QPP) remains a burden for the majority of gastroenterologists as the current quality measures are not specialty specific, do not reflect the care that GIs provide and has not improved quality or moved GIs closer to a value-based payment system as was the intention of the program. Congress must work to improve this system for physicians and for patients.

We are advocating for long-term, sustainable funding for digestive disease and cancer research that improves the quality of life and life expectancy for patients and also keeps the U.S. competitive in the global marketplace.

Help shape the future

Only AGA members in the U.S. are eligible to donate to the PAC. One hundred percent of contributions go directly to supporting political candidates — all administrative costs are paid by AGA. A bipartisan panel of AGA member gastroenterologists review and approve all candidates supported by the PAC.  

2023-2024 AGA PAC Board Members

  • Peter S. Margolis, MD, AGAF, Chair
  • Naresh T. Gunaratnam, MD, AGAF, Governing Board Liaison
  • Sarah Heckman, Staff Liaison
  • Sadeea Abbasi, MD, PhD
  • John I. Allen, MD, MBA, AGAF
  • Nadeem A. Baig, MD
  • Rotonya M. Carr, MD, FACP (ex-officio)
  • Jeffrey Crippin, MD
  • Arpan A. Patel, MD
  • Amulya Reddy, DO
  • Maged Rizk, MD
  • Richard Robbins, MD
  • Nihar Shah, MD, FACP, FACG, FASGE
  • Eugenia Uche-Anya, MD, MpH (trainee member)
  • Vaibhav Wadhwa, MD

For more information about AGA PAC, review our FAQ’s resource or contact Sarah Heckman, AGA’s senior manager for political affairs and advocacy, at [email protected] .

Prior authorization delays care

AGA is committed to reducing these burdens on physicians and patients.

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