Important advocacy for diabetes care
I will be joining several people on October 29, 2014 using twitter to advocate for 3 very important causes related to diabetes. The twitter event starts at 8:00 PM Eastern and will last one hour. If you use twitter, please join us. If not please write you US House Representative or US Senators and ask their support for these proposals:
“S539/HR1074 – National Diabetes Clinical Care Commission Act (Coordinate)
Currently: 21 Senate cosponsors and 165 House cosponsors
Did you know that there are 37 separate federal agencies that play some role in the prevention and treatment of diabetes? These agencies aren’t always working together, resulting in miscommunication (or lack of communication), reinventing the wheel, and wasting of resources.
The National Diabetes Clinical Care Commission Act will coordinate diabetes efforts. The Commission will include federal agency representatives, patients and health care providers, and will use existing funds at no extra cost to taxpayers to do its work” ("Strip Safety Twitter," 2014).
“S945/HR1274 – Access to Quality Diabetes Education Acts (Diabetes Education)
Currently: 12 Senate cosponsors and 16 House cosponsors
This bill will increase access to diabetes self-management training (DSMT) by designating credentialed diabetes educators as certified providers for purposes of outpatient DSMT services under Medicare Part B. It’s “budget neutral“, meaning that the cost of the outpatient services will be offset by the savings provided with the program” ("Strip Safety Twitter," 2014).
“S2689/HR5644 – Medicare CGM Access Act of 2014 (Cover CGM)
Currently: 9 Senate cosponsors and 2 House cosponsors
Medicare does not currently cover CGM devices, leaving people over 65 with type 1 diabetes (T1D) without coverage for continuous glucose monitors. Did you know that right now, costs for a hypoglycemia inpatient admission average $17,564 per visit!? This bill will help save money – and lives.
Passage of the bill will facilitate Medicare coverage of CGMs, and help pave the way for the next generation of CGM-related technologies, such as artificial pancreas (AP) systems” ("Strip Safety Twitter," 2014).
So how important are these measures? They are vital. So if you tweet please join your fellow PWD’s on Wednesdays evening and tweet to your US Senators and US House Members and ask them both for their support and that they cosponsor these measures. Remember in the US House of Representatives in particular, the more cosponsors we have the better chance we have of moving the bill to a successful conclusion.
If you do not use twitter please take time and write your representative and ask that they support and co-sponsor these bills.
Here is where you can obtain a list of cosponsors of the various items of legislation:
S 539 - https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/539/cosponsors
S 945 - https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/945/cosponsors
S 2689 - https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/2689/cosponsors
HR 1074 - https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/2689/cosponsors
HR 1274 - https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1274/cosponsors
HR 5644 - https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/5644/cosponsors
Incidentally several Congress members report that they are members of the ‘Congressional Diabetes Caucus’, my congressional representative writes back almost every time I write her that she is a member of the House Diabetes Caucus. She is and of course that is nice. But for her that is about she does. She is not sponsoring, cosponsoring or really even supporting any of these or other diabetes legislation. This is where you can find out if your US House Member is part of the House Diabetes Caucus:
http://diabetescaucus-degette.house.gov/membership
I hope you will write your US house Representative and US Senator and ask for their support of these items.
References
Strip Safety Twitter. (2014). Retrieved October 28, 2014, from http://www.stripsafely.com/the-twitter-page/
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