Epilepsy Advocates and Partners Successfully Preserve Medicare’s Six Protected Classes Policy
Last month, teen advocates and their families from around the country gathered in Washington, DC for the Epilepsy Foundation of America’s Teen Speak Up and Public Policy Institute Conference. The Epilepsy Foundation Eastern PA was proud to send Ben Manicke of Bangor, PA and Miranda West of Maplewood, NJ. Ben and Miranda, along with their families, visited with legislators to educate policy makers about life with seizures and to advocate for issues of importance to the epilepsy community.
The Epilepsy Foundation recently reported that this advocacy, and that of the larger epilepsy community, has resulted in an important Access to Care victory. We applaud “the Administration for pulling back harmful provisions proposed last November that would have impeded access to life-changing, oftentimes life-saving, anticonvulsants for the 1.1 million Medicare beneficiaries living with epilepsy. In the finalized Medicare Part D rule released Thursday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) codified the existing Medicare Six Protected Classes policy — affirming the policy’s importance for people with complex acute and chronic health conditions, including epilepsy.” You can read the Epilepsy Foundation’s full statement here.
Thank you to everyone who raised their voice to ensure people living with epilepsy have access to physician-directed treatment. This is a major federal legislative victory and the Epilepsy Foundation Eastern PA is proud to share the role that local advocates played. Thank you to Ben, Miranda, their families, along with Dr. Chris Skidmore, EFEPA Board of Directors member and Professional Advisory Board chair, Missy Dolaway, EFEPA Director of Development, and Mary Loughlin, EFEPA Northeast Resource Coordinator for their participation in the 2019 Teen Speak Up Legislative Day. To learn more about the legislative advocacy work of the Epilepsy Foundation, please visit epilepsy.com/advocacy or contact the EFEPA at 215-629-5003 or [email protected].