Washington, D.C., Feb. 23, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Statement by Global Alzheimer’s Platform Foundation® President John Dwyer:
“Once again, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has outrageously discriminated against 1.2 million Americans with Alzheimer’s who can benefit from a class of disease-modifying therapies that can help extend their life, memory and independence.
CMS’s latest decision on disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s patients is effectively a coverage denial for this entire class of drugs, and patients will needlessly die as a result of it.
This decision continues the agency’s unprecedented and pernicious actions against the Alzheimer’s community, which take treatment options — and hope — away from people with this heinous disease. In its latest decision, CMS continues to erect additional barriers to access in the form of a ‘coverage with evidence’ (CED) requirement on an already FDA-approved drug. This denies access to poor, rural and medically underserved communities — and CMS’s past CED initiatives demonstrate this.
We emphatically disagree with CMS’s coverage decision. It unreasonably burdens people with Alzheimer’s — especially those from traditionally underrepresented communities.
We join the growing chorus of elected officials, physicians, clinicians, and Alzheimer’s advocates, patients and caregivers who believe that CMS, as our nation’s largest insurance payer, has a moral and legal obligation to provide equal access to FDA-approved treatments, no matter the class of drugs — or the disease.
While the cold hearts at CMS continue to allow hundreds of thousands to progress in this disease, denying access to treatment, we look to the President and Congress to right the agency’s regulatory wrongs. We also call on CMS to be prepared to fully cover reimbursements for Leqembi as soon as the treatment receives full traditional approval from the FDA.
The devastating progressive nature of Alzheimer’s disease demands full coverage-to-label for FDA-approved treatments — and the lives of millions of Americans who will lose memory, quality of life and hope every day — demand it.”
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For immediate release
