CHAIN

New name – broader mission

The Colorado Health Advocacy and Information Network, founded in 2019, is expanding. We’ve been very successful in Colorado, positively impacting healthcare policies and now we’re broadening our focus to the entire southwest region. 

We’ve changed our name to the “Consumer” Health Advocacy and Information Network.  We’re still CHAIN, with a focus on all consumers in Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Colorado.

We still have the same great mission – to take on the status quo, challenge the thinking that only government-based solutions can solve healthcare problems; and to champion the best, bold, creative solutions to fixing this Country’s growing healthcare challenges, focusing only on the consumer.

Email us at http://info@consumerhealthadvocates.net and find us on Socials by clicking the icons below.

Dedicated to keeping healthcare costs down for consumers

In the midst of all the political chaos, most people aren’t paying much attention to what’s happening at the federal level to try to keep healthcare costs down for consumers. . . But we are.

This one’s top on our list. In 1992 Congress passed an act creating what is known as the 340B Drug Pricing Program. It was a good move. The program was designed to help vulnerable patients access medications that they might not otherwise be able to afford, by forcing drug manufacturers to provide steep discounts on outpatient medications to what is called “safety net” clinics and hospitals.  It’s still in effect today, with 57 percent of all hospitals, and 46 percent of contract pharmacies in the U.S. participating in the program, including in Colorado, Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
 
The expectation was that savings would be used to ensure vulnerable patients have access to their medications. Not surprisingly, it would appear that the cost savings are now primarily being diverted to middlemen, known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers, to boost their bottom line.
 
According to research by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer’s Association, the top performing 340B hospitals nationwide collected nearly $10 in total profit for every $1 they invested in charity care.
 
Fortunately, this misdirection of funds has been discovered and Congress is once again looking at how to tighten regulations around the program so that, instead of benefiting an industry, it stays true to its intent, to help less affluent Americans, be able to afford their life-saving medications.
 
CHAIN is monitoring the legislation. Stay tuned. We may need your help in lobbying Congress in the near future.

Outstanding Women in STEM Group Award

2024 Awards Recipients

CHAIN is pleased to have, once again, been part of this year's National Civics Bee

Congratulations to Danielle Williams for winning the Outstanding Women in STEM Award, sponsored by CHAIN, at Colorado Women’s Day. Danielle was recognized for her ingenuity in reinventing a tent that can be set up in less than 90 seconds!

CHAIN ED Joni Inman and Presenter, Cheryl Blum Garcia, LegalShield

And to the Colorado BioScience Association for winning the first-ever Outstanding Women in STEM Group Award, sponsored by CHAIN, at Colorado Women’s Day. What an amazing group of women!

2024 Awards Recipients

TESTIMONY SUBMITTED BY JENNIFER CHURCHIELD, HB23-1225

Jennifer Churchfield - CHAIN
Jennifer Churchfield - CHAIN

MARCH 9, 2023

Dear (Chair) and Members of the Health & Insurance Committee 

Thank you for the opportunity to provide this written testimony to the House Health & Insurance  Committee on HB23-1225, the PDAB Modernization Bill. 

In 2021, I was one of dozens of everyday Coloradans, doctors, hospitals, medical providers and other  stakeholders to testify in opposition to the original PDAB bill, SB21-175. 

The concerns raised then about embarking on an ill-advised and unproven program where the state  controls the price of prescription medicines lasted well into the night. Questions were never answered  on how the state would ensure that patients in Colorado would receive real, tangible savings on  prescription drugs, how the state would guarantee that patient access to life-saving medicines would  not be compromised, and how the PDAB law would not put our health providers in the horrific vice of  having either to deny patients the drugs they need or violate the law.  

Twenty months and over $1.6 million in taxpayer dollars, these questions remain. The PDAB has not  even brought up a single prescription drug for consideration of the upper payment limit (UPL), the  supposed silver bullet for how costs will be lowered. Instead of producing real results for struggling  Colorado drug consumers, the state had to go back for an additional $260,000 on top of the original  appropriation. 

Inexplicably, we are now looking at the introduction of HB23-1225 as a massive expansion of the PDAB  program and reach. The bill removes the two key guardrails put in Sb-175 that legislators agreed to as a  pledge to help ensure that, if nothing else, the potential damage of the PDAB program can be mitigated.  Instead, HB23-1225 gives PDAB “carte blanche” to set a UPL for any drug they choose, as opposed to the  twelve drug limit and doubles the sunset period from five to ten years. 

We should be going in the opposite direction. Before taking any more action or gaining more control,  the state legislature and the executive branch should be requiring that the PDAB board answer  questions about the cost/benefit being promised to Colorado patients: 

  • What level of savings can patients expect to see from implementation of PDAB policies and when can they expect to see them? Will patients see any reduction in their out-of-pocket costs?
  • How do Colorado patients and their families get assurance that the backward logic of the UPL does not result in patients being denied access to hundreds of medications because providers won’t be allowed to access the drugs or face legal action if they do?
  • What alternatives will be available to patients if a needed medication is denied to them?
  • To what extent would PDAB exacerbate the already growing health inequities between high and low-income patients when those with means can travel outside Colorado for a drug not available under the UPL, and those without means will have a harder time doing so?
  • How can the state legislature, research staff, and HCPF leadership possibly justify the notion that no additional fiscal support will be required for a DOUBLING of PDAB’s sunset term, when the current spend rate for the program is $81,000 a month. Will the four, full-time state employees now assigned to PDAB go away? Will the board not spend a penny during the course of its five-year extension?

Unfortunately for Colorado patients, families and taxpayers, these questions only begin to tackle the  looming risks and costs posed by the PDAB concept. Add to those the fundamental violation of our free market system that having a government price-setting board represents, and the chance of a nightmare  scenario facing the state’s patients and taxpayers becomes all too real. 

I urge the state legislature to vote no on HB23-1225 and instead conduct a rigorous review of the  hazards and harms PDAB may pose to Coloradans and address ways to ensure patients already  struggling under high healthcare costs aren’t faced with further suffering.  

Thank you, 

Jennifer Churchfield

Fight Policies That Endanger Access to Life Saving Medicines

FIGHTING POLICIES THAT ENDANGER ACCESS TO Life-Saving MEDICINES

Colorado doctors, patients, health care providers and experts are all expressing serious concerns about the impact a bill introduced in the state legislature this year will have on patients access to life-saving treatment. CO Senate Bill 175 threatens access to life-saving medicines by giving politicians control over what your doctor or hospital can pay for prescription drugs.  If the medicine costs more than what the state allows your doctor to pay, your doctor won’t buy the medicine, and you or your loved one won’t be able to get the treatment needed.

Those Most Vulnerable May Suffer the Most

Groups representing the disabled, LGBTQ, people of color, the underserved and Colorado’s seniors are speaking out in concern with SB175, especially the proposal that would let state politicians control prices and access to life-saving drugs.

Colorado small business owners and bioscience researchers are seriously worried about the impacts the bill will have on Colorado’s role as a leading medical research center.  And they are equally concerned about the gross interference in how life-saving medicines are priced and by extension how research happens.

Coloradans From All Walks of Life Speaking Out

This is just a partial list of the organizations speaking out against SB175’s provision to let state politicians control the cost and access to prescription drugs:

Colorado Society of Pharmacists
Colorado Retail Council
Colorado Gerontological Society
HIV+HEPC
Adams County Regional Economic Partnership
The Citizens Council for Health Freedom
Colorado Sickle Cell Association
Colorado Council of Black Nurses
Front Range Pharmalogic
West Slope Pharmalogic
Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation
Club 20
Westminster Chamber
Envision: You (an organization that supports, educates and empowers members of Colorado’s LGBTQ + (mental health and well-being for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning community)

You can read the specific concerns of many of these groups here:

The impact of Coloradans speaking against compromising care and treatment is being felt across our state.

These are a sample of recently published articles in newspapers throughout Colorado of people voicing concerns about not being able to access today’s life-saving medicines or seeing tomorrow’s cures be stopped in their tracks.

The impacts of Senate Bill 175 on our care are real.  But so is the impact of us speaking out.  Together we can stop SB175 from becoming law and cutting off our access to hures.

Mark Spiecker, STAQ Pharma: A state prescription drug board will backfire

 

Emily Zadvorny, Colorado Pharmacists Society: A state Prescription Drug Affordability board puts pharmacies, access to medication at risk

Jennifer Churchfield, Front Range PharmaLogic: State drug price limits would not drive down prescription prices

Rep. David Soper: Colorado Should Reject European-style price-setting board

Joni Inman, Front Range PharmaLogic: A prescription-drug price-control bill is the wrong answer for Colorado

Additional Resources

Opposition Testimony: CO SB 21-175 to establish a Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board

Senate Health and Human Services Committee, March 17, 2021

SB 21-175: Provider Testimony, Senate Health and Human Services Committee

Dr. Miller Head of Rocky Mountain Oncology Society, Chief Medical Director of Oncology; Associate Chief Medical Director of Clinical Research, SCL Health Cancer Center of Colorado

Governor and Legislature Drug Pricing Bill Harms Patients

“Prescription Drug Affordability (Price Control) Board” Means More Bureaucracy – Not Cheaper or more Accessible Medications for Patients

 

Get Involved

The Missing Colorado Healthcare Link

Linking the right policy ideas with the right influential people is a great start to solving our healthcare challenges. But it’s just the beginning.  

Fixing healthcare is our shared responsibility. And Colorado citizens like you are the missing link. With your trust and support, we can create lasting change.

We can solve healthcare in Colorado. Ready to link up with CHAIN?