Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act Update: Advocacy in October
Published in
Women's Health
on September 08, 2021
August of Action is officially over, and we are all prepping for the busy season, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During the month of August, Essentially Women hosted a virtual fly-in to discuss the Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act with EW members, Senators, and Representatives from several different states.
Overall, we had 12 EW members reach out to EW and VGM Government Relations to schedule meetings with their members of Congress. Nine meetings have been held so far. We’ve even had 3 members go above and beyond to attend 2 meetings.
Thank you to those who have participated to meet with your representatives to explain how important the Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act is to your business and your patients. Representatives always want to hear from their constituents. Continue to contact them by phone and email until you see that they have signed onto the legislation! As of Tuesday, Sept. 7, H.R. 3087 has 13 cosponsors and S. 2051 has 3 cosponsors.
As you plan for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, don’t forget to continue to talk about our Let Her Decide campaign and the importance of allowing women who have undergone a mastectomy to be able to choose which breast replacement option is best for them, whether that be surgical reconstruction, off-the-shelf prosthesis, or custom breast prosthesis. Surgical reconstruction and off-the-shelf are covered by Medicare; custom is not. Not all women are candidates for surgery or would choose surgery if they had an option that would better fit than what off-the-shelf prosthetics can provide. The Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act would allow Medicare to establish coverage for this benefit.
Even though the virtual fly-in is over, you can still reach out to VGM Government Relations to help schedule congressional meetings. Feel free to reach out to Emily Harken, Director of Operations for VGM Government Relations, at Emily.harken@vgm.com or 800-642-6065 if you want assistance.