ADVOCACY ACTION CENTER

Protect Patient Access to Charitable Assistance

Congress must take action to protect pulmonary hypertension patients from copay accumulator policies. The Help Ensure Lower Patient Copays Act (HELP Copays Act, H.R. 5801) requires Affordable Care Act-regulated insurance plans to accept payments from charitable assistance sources and count them toward patients’ deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. Use PHA’s email template to ask your elected official to cosponsor H.R. 5801 today!

Spark Awareness of PH in Congress

Let’s use the power of our collective voices to get Congress talking about pulmonary hypertension.

The Pulmonary Hypertension Association is kicking off PH Awareness Month with a Day of Action on Nov. 1. We will hold all the messages you write to your members of Congress and release them all at once to make the greatest impact.

Congress is currently making decisions on bills that affect our community, such as the Safe Step Act. If you or a loved one deal with step therapy requirements, copay assistance, obstacles to accessing treatment or other challenges, these stories are especially powerful.

No matter what your connection to PH, help us raise awareness with elected officials by sharing your PH story today!

Improve the Supplemental Security Income Program

Congress has failed to update the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for more than 30 years. This neglect leaves millions of Americans with disabilities, including PH, living in poverty. If enacted, the SSI Restoration Act of 2021 would keep SSI beneficiaries from falling below the poverty line by simplifying the claiming process, expanding resources and income limits, setting the minimum benefit at 100% of the federal poverty level and eliminating punitive reductions in benefits. Write to your legislators to support this legislation using PHA’s email template.

Expand Access to Out-of-State Practitioners 

The Temporary Reciprocity to Ensure Access to Treatment (TREAT) Act would eliminate a barrier to care for individuals with PH by allowing health care professionals in good licensure standing to practice in any state for at least six months after the end of the public health emergency.  

Tell your legislators how access to out-of-state medical care improves PH patients’ wellbeing and ask them to support the TREAT Act by using PHA’s email template.

Tell Congress to Protect Telehealth Coverage

Telemedicine provides people with pulmonary hypertension (PH) better access to specialists and reduces the burden of travel for routine care visits. Congress is considering legislation that would make expanded access to telehealth permanent for Medicare beneficiaries beyond the pandemic.

Use PHA’s email template to tell your lawmakers why access to virtual visits with health care providers is important to you and your family. Tell your U.S. senators and representative to support the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2021 to ensure that telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries are here to stay.

Support the Safe Step Act

When insurance payers require that someone with PH try and fail a less-expensive PH therapy before getting the medication their physician prescribed, the resulting delay can be devastating.

That’s why PHA supports the Safe Step Act, a bill that limits “step-therapy” or “fail-first” requirements and protects everyone’s access to the therapy that is right for them.

Use PHA’s template to email your U.S. senators and representative and ask them to co-sponsor the Safe Step Act.

Increase Funding for NIH and CDC

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lead the U.S. COVID-19 response while continuing their regular work on rare and chronic health conditions, including pulmonary hypertension (PH). As Congress begins work on the 2022 federal budget, remind your legislators that NIH and CDC funding must increase to keep pace with these critical needs.

Share Your PH Story

Many members of Congress don’t understand how pulmonary hypertension (PH) affects every aspect of life for people like you in their states. You can change that. The Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) can help you share your story with lawmakers. Now is a good time to connect with senators and representatives, whether they are newly elected or returning veterans. Make sure fighting PH is among their priorities.

Stay Involved

When you join PHA’s grassroots advocacy network, we send you the resources you need to stay in touch with your Members of Congress a few times a year about the issues that impact your life. Be heard. Be a PH advocate.

Schedule a Meeting with Your Member of Congress

Your members of Congress work for you. Move fighting pulmonary hypertension (PH) to the top of their legislative agenda through planned phone calls, video meetings and visits to their local offices in your home state. Start scheduling your visit by completing the form or contacting PHA at Advocacy@PHAssociation.org or 301-565-3004 x749.