- The Honorable Lisa Murkowski
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510 - The Honorable Margaret Wood Hassan
324 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510 - The Honorable Roger Marshall, MD
479A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510 - The Honorable Jacky Rosen
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
RE: Support for S. 652, the Safe Step Act
Dear Senators Murkowski, Hassan, Marshall, and Rosen:
As patient and physician advocates, the Alliance of Specialty Medicine (Alliance) writes in support of your legislation, S. 652, the Safe Step Act, which would provide patients and providers with a clear and transparent appeals process when subject to step therapy protocols instituted by insurers.
As you know, a medication step-therapy protocol establishes a specific sequence in which prescription drugs are covered by a group health plan or a health insurance issuer. Step-therapy protocols may require patients to try and fail an insurer-preferred medication before being covered by the physician-prescribed medication. Many insurers have instituted this practice to help control the costs of expensive medications. However, while this practice may initially reduce insurer costs, it can have devastating health consequences for patients and ultimately lead to more expensive health care costs in the long run. Patients who are denied first coverage of medications recommended by their physicians can end up with poor health outcomes due to adverse health events which can lead to costly hospitalizations. In the era of personalized medicine, patients with chronic diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, psoriasis, or age-related macular degeneration may respond differently to various medications used to treat these diseases.
Click here to read the full Neurosurgery Joins Alliance in Supporting Senate Bill to Reform Step Therapy.
