Our nation’s capital played host to the second annual in-person Congressional Fly-In organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Orthotics and Prosthetics (NAAOP) and sponsored by the Orthotic Prosthetic Group of America (OPGA). The week was a flurry of activity and advocacy for the 32 O&P patients, practitioners, and O&P leaders who attended this invitation-only event and served as an important opportunity to solidify the support garnered during the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association (AOPA) Policy Forum held earlier this spring. The 2026 NAAOP Congressional Fly-In was a tremendous success for the O&P community. NAAOP sincerely thanks all those who participated in making this event so successful.
Breece Fellowship Luncheon
On Monday, July 13, O&P leaders attended the George and Dena Breece Fellowship Luncheon to introduce Elijah Brummond, the 2026 Breece Fellow, to senior leadership of the national O&P organizations including AOPA, the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists, the American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics (ABC), the National Commission on Orthotic and Prosthetic Education, and the Amputee Coalition. The luncheon provided an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate eight of the nine Breece Fellows who attended the event. Also in attendance were leaders from O&P organizations who support the vision of the Breece Fellowship, namely, Hanger Clinic and ABC, who generously help financially support the fellowship.
The luncheon was an opportunity for the leading experts in O&P advocacy to reconnect, meet Brummond, and discuss the unique roles of each organization and how they collectively advance the field. The luncheon culminated with a birthday celebration for George Breece, acknowledging the major role he played as founding executive director of NAAOP from its inception in 1987 until his retirement earlier this year.
Congressional Fly-In Training
The event officially began after the fellowship luncheon concluded, where Nate Kapa, CP, NAAOP president, welcomed the participants to Washington DC. Peter Thomas, JD, NAAOP general counsel, spoke about the NAAOP legislative priorities that were the focus this year:
1. Support of H.R. 4475, the Medicare O&P Patient-Centered Care Act, and its Senate companion bill, S. 2329, to fight Medicare fraud and abuse
2. Protection of veterans through the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, H.R. 9237, which would codify coverage of activity-specific prostheses for veterans (which NAAOP strongly supports), and a proposal to implement a new formulary for prosthetics under the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefit that raises serious and concerning questions
3. The O&P community’s request for $15 million in federal research funding in fiscal year (FY) 2027 for the Orthotics and Prosthetics Outcomes Research Program through the Department of Defense (DOD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program
The individuals who participated in the fly-in were each selected to represent a specific organization or sector of the field. The group was heavily weighted toward individuals with limb loss, led by the Breece Fellows, each of whom has personal experience with prosthetic or orthotic care. Each Fellow stressed his or her personal story in congressional meetings. Among the attendees were the two OPGA award winners, Ruth Guiness, MSOP, CPO/L, and Alex Ogar, CFm, both of whom dove into meetings alongside longtime NAAOP participants and brought their own clinical perspectives directly to congressional members and staff. Select members of the NAAOP board and membership completed the group, each being constituents of key members of Congress to advance the O&P policy agenda.
Honoring Senator Tammy Duckworth
After the briefings wrapped up, the group participated in a political fundraiser for Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) at the Powers Law office. In recognition of the importance of bipartisanship, NAAOP’s 2025 fundraiser was held for Rep. Glenn “G. T.” Thompson (R-PA), the key sponsor of the Medicare O&P Patient-Centered Care Act. This year’s fundraiser was a great opportunity for the attendees to meet Duckworth, who uses prostheses and is in the midst of undergoing osseointegration procedures. The event was cohosted by the Powers political action committee (PAC), AOPA PAC, OPGA PAC, and Hanger PAC, and numerous attendees contributed personally to her campaign as well. The event offered an important opportunity for the attendees to thank Duckworth for her strong support of specific O&P policies and gave her an opportunity to share her views on a wide variety of issues impacting the country. It brought together advocates, staff, and one of the Senate’s most consistent champions of veterans’ and disability issues
in an informal setting.
Monday culminated with a welcome dinner, which gave attendees a chance to unwind after a long day of education and preparation for Capitol Hill meetings on substantive issues. The dinner also provided an opportunity to present the OPGA grant winners with their awards and formally recognize them and their achievements.
Congressional Fly-In
Fighting Medicare Fraud
Each team carried the three core legislative priorities into their meetings, though the emphasis shifted depending on the office. Many conversations centered on the Medicare O&P Patient-Centered Care Act, which addresses fraud and abuse in the orthotic benefit, exempts credentialled O&P practitioners from the Medicare competitive bidding program, and would remove long-standing gaps in how Medicare recognizes and reimburses O&P care. Advocates explained how the bill’s provisions would help ensure Medicare beneficiaries receive the appropriate level of clinical care from qualified providers, rather than being forced to procure off-the-shelf (OTS) orthoses through a new and untested remote item delivery (RID) system. The RID approach would limit the number of OTS orthotic suppliers under the competitive bidding program to less than ten nationwide, eliminating patient relationships with community-based O&P providers across the country. The bill would also ban drop shipping of custom-fitted and -fabricated orthoses and prostheses. In fact, the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) cosponsored a congressional sign-on letter addressed to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz asking him to implement provisions of the bill under his own fraud authority.
Protecting Veterans
Other meetings were devoted specifically to sections 305 and 316 of the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act, where NAAOP participants expressed the O&P community’s strong support for section 305, which would codify into law the VA’s policy allowing veterans to have access to activity-specific prostheses. This would solidify VA access to prosthetic care and open the possibility of enacting similar federal policies in the private insurance market in the future, which would federalize the So Every BODY Can Move state-based effort.
Participants also met with key Senate and House staff on the VA committees to ask questions and articulate concerns surrounding section 316 of the VA bill making its way through Congress. This section would establish a formulary for prosthetic care in the VA. Establishing such rules for O&P care could be detrimental to veterans’ access to care should the formulary eventually become a ceiling rather than a floor for care. VA staffers were open to hearing our concerns and working with us to ensure that the formulary, if codified into law, would serve to establish a standard for coverage across the country rather than restricting access to O&P care.
O&P Outcomes Research Funding
Still other meetings focused on the O&P community’s FY 2027 appropriations request for $15 million for the O&P Outcomes Research Program under the DOD. This funding supports research into O&P outcomes that benefits not only wounded servicemembers and veterans, but the broader civilian O&P patient population. This research funding is intended to build a stronger evidence base for the clinical value of high-quality O&P care. Congress earmarked funding for this program from 2014 through 2023, after which the funding lapsed. AOPA was originally responsible for securing the funding, but in recent years the Orthotic and Prosthetic Alliance has worked toward reinstating the funding. The current request is for Congress to provide $15 million in dedicated funding for this program in FY 2027.
Results
Across all three priorities, NAAOP participants encountered a consistent reaction to our advocacy efforts: Offices are increasingly receptive to hearing about efforts to reform CMS to reduce fraud and abuse, which has become a major priority across all sectors of the US government. Offices and committee staff seemed particularly interested in H.R. 4475/S. 2329 and its efforts to reduce fraud in the orthotics field while taking measures to significantly improve patient care.
The feedback gathered from the meetings was extensive, and NAAOP has spent the days since the fly-in following up with offices to answer additional questions, provide supporting materials, and keep communication channels open and the discussion moving forward. That follow-up has already started to pay off as we have observed increasing interest in our legislative priorities from certain key offices and committee staffers.
Congressional Sign-On Letter
One example of the tangible results arising from the fly-in is the Dear Colleague letter circulating in the House by our O&P champions to address Medicare fraud through the Medicare O&P Patient-Centered Care Act. On July 13, the primary House sponsors of H.R. 4475, Reps. Thompson and Thompson, published the letter seeking congressional sign-ons related to two of the bill’s three core provisions. The sponsors are now working to build a list of supporting members of Congress willing to cosign, with the letter being sent to Oz in the coming days. The strategy behind the letter is twofold: to build visible congressional support that can help move the bill itself, and to encourage CMS to consider implementing some of the bill’s provisions administratively, under the agency’s existing authority, even as the legislative process continues in parallel.
NAAOP worked closely with our congressional champions to help orchestrate the Dear Colleague letter and continues to work to ensure that it receives sufficient support from the cosponsors of H.R. 4475 as well as other congressional members. NAAOP will continue tracking the letter’s progress and encouraging offices that met with fly-in attendees as well as other offices to add their names before it is finalized and delivered to CMS.
One of the most encouraging signs to come out of this year’s event is the feedback we received. Our groups reported that congressional offices were open to supporting the issues we presented. Staffers were interested in learning more about the evidence that supported our claims and sought to continue the discussion after the meetings. The interest in the issues went beyond mere lip service and led to multiple follow-up discussions in the days that followed. The group’s efforts also resulted in two new cosponsors of S. 2329, one of whom is Senator Grassley (R-IA), who is well placed to garner support for the bill from his colleagues in the Senate. This takes it one step closer to being implemented in the future.
As we move forward from this year’s event, NAAOP’s work is far from finished. With the Dear Colleague letter circulating on the Hill, discussions with CMS and Oz, and continued attention to the veterans’ provisions and the DOD research request, the coming weeks and remaining months of the 119th Congress will be critical for keeping this year’s momentum strong and carrying it through to the 120th Congress.
For an organization built on the belief that patients and the providers who serve them are the most powerful messengers for the O&P community, the 2026 NAAOP Congressional Fly-In once again proved the value of putting people with personal experience in O&P in front of lawmakers. From the Breece Fellows and OPGA award winners, to the veteran advocates and longtime NAAOP supporters who attended the meetings, this year’s participants brought a strong message to Capitol Hill. They did so with the energy and dedication that has made NAAOP’s advocacy program so effective over the years.
NAAOP extends its sincere thanks to everyone who made the trip to Washington, to the Breece Fellows and OPGA award winners who represented the community so well, and once again to OPGA, whose ongoing generosity continues to make this critical advocacy work possible. Overall, the event was a resounding success and secured major advances for the O&P community. We look forward to building upon the work that was accomplished and continuing the profession’s momentum in Washington.
Peter W. Thomas, JD, is managing partner at Powers Law Firm, Washington DC, NAAOP general counsel, and counsel to the O&P Alliance. Elijah J. Brummond is NAAOP’s 2026 George and Dena Breece Fellow.
Opener: Sono Creative/stockadobe.com
