Word from Washington: The Federal Landscape
2025 has seen an incredibly active start to the year, with a new Presidential Administration, a refocused Congress under slim Republican control, and a firehose of new presidential actions (or executive orders – “EOs” for short). A New Administration (Again) On January 20th, Donald Trump once again took office as the President of the United […]
Advocacy News: August 2024
Word from Washington Federal Agencies Uninsured rate spikes as Medicaid “unwinding” disenrollments break 25 million According to the most recent data from the KFF Medicaid Unwinding Enrollment Tracker, more than 25 million Medicaid enrollees have been disenrolled since states were allowed in April 2023 to resume eligibility verifications following the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). […]
Advocacy News: July 2024
Word from Washington Federal Agencies CMS prevails in lawsuit over partial Medicaid expansion in Georgia A federal judge has ruled in favor of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in Georgia’s lawsuit over whether the agency can discontinue the state’s partial Medicaid expansion before its five-year approval expires. The Georgia Pathways to Coverage […]
Advocacy News: June 2024
Word from Washington Federal Courts Unanimous Supreme Court dismisses challenge to FDA approval for mifepristone In a case that threatened to restrict access to hormonal therapies for women with bleeding disorders, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed lower court decisions that effectively invalidated the 2000 approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the […]
Court Overturns Accumulator Adjuster Rule
Court orders HHS to revise federal regulations permitting harmful copay accumulators In a preliminary victory for consumers, a federal judge in the District of Columbia set aside federal regulations that disadvantage people who rely on copay assistance to afford their medications. The ruling is welcome news for patient groups that have long opposed so-called “copay […]
FDA Proposes Blood Donation Changes
On Friday, January 27, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced proposed changes to national blood and plasma donation policies. The draft FDA guidance, if finalized, would eliminate time-based donation deferrals for men who have sex with men. Instead, revised donor history questionnaires would ask all donors (regardless of gender) to answer individual risk-based […]
Washington Wire: September 2022
HFA Fly-In and Week of Advocacy HFA was excited to return to in-person meetings for its ninth annual Patient Fly-In this year, after two years of virtual events. Twenty community members from 10 different states came to Washington, D.C. for policy and advocacy briefings, followed by meetings on Capitol Hill with 35 Congressional offices. Advocates […]
Washington Wire: August 2022
On August 16, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The massive bill took a long and torturous path through Congress before finally passing on a party-line vote. It includes significant health care provisions, along with climate, energy, and tax initiatives. One part of the IRA, in particular, answers a key […]
Washington Wire: July 2022
One key provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires most health insurance plans to cover – without cost-sharing – services that help screen for and prevent disease. Annual primary care visits, immunizations, cancer screenings, and improved access to birth control are just a few of the categories of preventive services that are available without […]
Washington Wire: May 2022
Federal courts tackle questions surrounding copay accumulator adjusters While HFA and allies continue advocating for sound laws and regulations regarding copay assistance, we are also monitoring a couple of noteworthy (if weedy!) court cases relating to copay accumulator adjusters (CAAPs) and copay maximizers. On May 4, drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson filed suit in federal […]
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