News that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will provide broader coverage for Alzheimer’s treatments lacks specifics; unclear if rural and non-hospital based physicians can participate
Statement attributed to John M. Dwyer, President of the Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation:
(WASHINGTON, DC, JUNE 1) — “It’s too early to celebrate. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would have us believe that this is business as usual. It is not. CMS is announcing that it will do the right thing and extend full coverage to an Alzheimer’s therapy that receives traditional approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but they are still insisting on placing unprecedented data collection efforts on doctors and patients. GAP is concerned about the undue burden this plan imposes on Alzheimer’s patients. It is not full coverage of an FDA-approved treatment for all beneficiaries, free of any additional bureaucratic hurdles. To coin a phrase, the devil is in the details.
Americans living with Alzheimer’s still deserve access to approved treatments, regardless of where they live or how they receive care. Requiring that coverage is dependent on a “qualifying physician participating in a registry” may limit access to those who are not located in a major metropolitan medical center or who may or may not have a trusted local health care provider equipped to add electronic data entry to their everyday practice pattern.
The Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP) will continue to fight alongside millions of Americans, including more than 100 bipartisan senators and members of Congress to ensure equal and fair access to approved Alzheimer’s treatments. Ever since CMS issued its decision in 2022 denying coverage of Alzheimer’s treatments approved for under the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway, the agency has held up its policies as routine. Rationing healthcare is not routine, and it’s not within the agency’s legal mandate to do so.
We encourage the Biden administration, from the President on down, to listen to the will of the voters and reverse the CMS coverage with evidence decision entirely. The American people know what’s right. Limiting access to life-improving treatments for people with Alzheimer’s is wrong.”
For immediate release:
Contact: media@globalalzplatform.org
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About the Global Alzheimer’s Platform (GAP) Foundation
The Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation (GAP) is a patient-centric, non-profit organization dedicated to speeding the delivery of innovative therapies to those living with Alzheimer’s by reducing the time and cost of Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials, and by increasing diversity in clinical research.