NATIONAL POLICY RESOURCES - LOCAL ADVOCACY RESULTS

Advocacy

As cancer care professionals who experience the challenges of providing quality cancer care first-hand, AACP members are well positioned to educate decision-makers on how coverage and reimbursement issues affect community oncology. State and federal legislation can have a significant impact on the financial viability of local cancer programs, which is why it's so important that our members make their voices heard.

In an effort to provide resources needed to effectively advocate on the issues that are important to them, our redesigned advocacy webpage features activity from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), national healthcare coverage through the Association of Cancer Care Centers  (ACCC), local news articles and webinars, and more.

We want to hear from you! If there is a specific piece of legislation you want to know more about, an important resource we're missing, or if you want to get more involved, please contact us!

STATE ADVOCACY

The Iowa House has unanimously voted to set new rules to prevent prescription drug switches that are not done for medical reasons. Representative Gary Mohr of Bettendorf said this is to protect patients from being denied coverage or being required to accept higher co-pays in the middle of a health plan’s year.

Do you have a patient who experienced this challenge? We would like to speak with you and/or the patient. Our goal is to share as many of these stories with Iowa legislators as we can. We can help put the message together and, if you’re interested, set up a meeting with your legislator. To participate, please contact Lu Anne Bankert at lbankert@accc-cancer.org by Thursday, March 23, 2023.

FEDERAL ADVOCACY

The Iowa Oncology Society (IOS) joined in a coalition letter to congressional leadership urging that Congress include the 21st Century Cures 2.0 concept paper, recently released by Representatives Diana DeGette and Fred Upton in upcoming legislation to further address the COVID-19 public health crisis. Specifically, the letter urges leadership to include policy to provide Medicaid coverage of the routine care costs of clinical trial participation for patients with life threatening conditions in every state.