Some of you may remember that several members of our community attended the AACE Concensus Conference on Glucose Monitoring. We had asked for input from our community and those inputs were very helpful during the conference.
I heard very good things about the meeting and the results. The formal results of that meeting, held on September 28-29 at the Hyatt on Capitol Hill are now available. The AACE has sent a letter to congress and released a press kit. Of particular interest was the guest article written for release to businesswire which highlights the key concerns:
- Medicare coverage for seniors does not include the cost of continuous glucose monitors.
- Insufficient monitoring of quality and safety of devices and supplies after they have been approved by the FDA and placed on the market
- Competitive bidding can lead to lowest-bid products of questionable quality and safety.
The AACE advocates that:
- Congress should pass the Medicare CGM Access Act (H.R.5644/S.2689)
- Congress should conduct follow-up hearings to those previously held on the FDA Safety and Innovation Act to examine the FDA’s pre and post marking surveillance and enforcement activities and also on the Medicare Competitive Bidding Program to ensure congressional intent is being followed with respect to patient access to a range of diabetes testing supplies that meet and maintain FDA quality standards.
- Congress should pass the National Diabetes Clinical Care Commission Act (H.R. 1074 / S. 539)
These are great positions, I'm really glad the AACE has stood up for patients. My friend rick the "Blogabetic just blogged about some of these bills. I would urge everyone to write to the congressional representatives to support these positions.