I owe the community a clarification and an apology, in particular to those that participated in our Live Interview about the Medicare Coverage for CGM that took place yesterday.
As I wrote on this blog entry, Diabetes Hands Foundation (the nonprofit behind TuDiabetes) has increased its advocacy efforts in the past several months. As a result of this, and the introduction of US Senate Bill 2689 (aimed at getting Medicare to pay for CGM), we looked at ways to support the efforts that JDRF (along with a coalition of industry and nonprofit partners) has led on this front. One of the ways to do this was to host a Live Interview about the topic on TuDiabetes, which we did yesterday.
I got wound up in the heat of moment, during the Live Interview. In the chat, I wrote:
"I want to leave with one thing: there was unfortunately diversity of guidance in the panel."
The only unfortunate thing there was yesterday was me making that comment. Since I made the comment publicly, I wanted to clarify publicly what I meant and apologize to everyone by this comment.
My hope (and actually a big focus of mine) in connection with the Live Interview, was to bring light to the issue: lack of coverage for CGM among US people with diabetes over 65, which results in stories like the one that Richard Vaughn so powerfully shared during the Live Interview. To change this, JDRF is inviting the US community to contact our Senators asking them to support the bill that will change this, and complete this survey to put extra pressure on them.
In hopes of making sure that these two things came through during yesterday's live interview, I used language that trampled over one of our most dear values: diversity of opinion. There was diversity of ideas and opinions about things to do in addition to the efforts that JDRF is leading, to put pressure on Medicare and the US Congress... and that is a GOOD thing! For my unfortunate use of words, and any offense, I apologize to the panelists and to the community at large.
Having said this: let's not take off the eye from the ball. We need to make sure we get to the "finish line", and this will only happen if we get this bill turned into law... so, if you accept this humble apology and you are a US citizen, please contact your Senators asking them to support this bill, and complete this survey to put extra pressure on them and Medicare.