Posts

Posted on

Bryan Head, Executive Director

Bryan Head, Executive DIrector

Bryan Head has worked with a variety of organizations on matters including community and stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, communication and fundraising.  He also has experience consulting on policy issues including healthcare, education, regulatory reform, and land-use matters. 

Bryan Head, Executive DIrectorWith over 15 years experience working in the financial services, technology, education and public policy sectors, Head has developed the unique ability to engage diverse populations and interest groups. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies, governmental entities and non-profits to solve complex problems.

In 2013, Head co-founded the Westminster Chamber of Commerce, which has grown to become one of the largest and most active chambers of commerce in Colorado. He currently serves as a strategic advisor to the chamber, and previously served two terms as Chairman of the Board. During his tenure with the Chamber, the organization has been recognized nationally for innovation, membership engagement and advocacy.  Head has represented the Westminster business community on policy matters at the city, state and federal levels. 

Head currently serves as President of Woodrow Wilson Academy, a Jefferson County public charter school, and a leader in the school choice movement. During his tenure, the school has been recognized for excellence by a myriad of state and federal leaders, including US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and US Senators Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner.  Head has also served in leadership capacities with the Leadership Program of the Rockies, the Jefferson County Outdoor Lab Foundation, the Arvada Rotary Club, the Arvada Rotary Foundation, the Jefferson County Business Education Alliance, and on a number of political campaigns.  As a volunteer coordinator for a winning presidential campaign, Head helped to recruit and organize over 2,000 volunteers across a four-state region.

Most recently, Head was actively involved in community engagement for The Uplands Collective, a nonprofit formed to engage the community around a residential housing development that will have a nearly $2 billion economic impact to the north Denver Metro area.

Head attended Abilene Christian University, where he studied English and Political Science. He lives in Westminster with his three children, Emma, Ashton and Colton, and their dog Daisy. In his spare time he enjoys doing anything outdoors, reading, traveling and going to as many concerts as his schedule allows. 

Posted on

Incoming Administration Has Historic Opportunity to Lower Healthcare Cost and Protect Access

We’re sending this email because you are a leader dedicated to helping financially vulnerable patients access the medical care and prescription medications they need. We at the Consumer Health Advocacy & Information Network (CHAIN) share that mission.

Multiple investigations have documented unprecedented abuse of the Federal 340B prescription discount program (New York Times, JAMA, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, et. al.).

The cost to everyone is great.  But the damage is even greater for the organizations and patients you serve.

Protecting the 340B program means bringing just the most basic transparency to this $66 billion federal program – the second largest prescription drug program in the nation – and stopping the growing 340B abuse that puts community health centers and their patients at risk.  Here’s what stemming the abuse of 340B will mean to you and millions of underserved patients:

  • Billions that are being diverted into profits at hospitals, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and national pharmacy chains would be put back into funding for the community health centers that are the intended providers of 340B care.
     
  • Desperately needed transparency would finally come to a system that has been operating in total “darkness” – so key stakeholders can determine how much charitable care 340B hospitals truly provide – and take the needed steps to ensure underserved patients get the care they need.
  • The growing exodus of pharmacies from underserved areas (creating “pharmacy deserts”) would start to be reversed by ensuring only contract pharmacies that serve 340B qualified patients can participate in the program.
  • 340B reforms would help shine a light on (and possibly stem the abusive practice of) hospitals gobbling up 340B qualified clinics – only to see them siphon off profits, strip care or close the clinics altogether.

CHAIN is engaging with leaders like you to create a movement to protect the 340B program. The first step is creating awareness around the abuse, so that health care leaders coming into office can take the steps needed to reverse the 340B abuse and protect everyone involved in care for the underserved.

Colorado Politics published my opinion piece on Wednesday, Nov 27, 2024.  Read the full letter here:  https://www.coloradopolitics.com/opinion/end-abuse-of-340b-give-consumers-break-with-rx-costs-podium/article_7153c392-ac6a-11ef-96df-8b897500e082.html

If you would like to stay informed and updated on the rapidly changing 340B landscape, please click here:
https://consumerhealthadvocates.net/

We’ll be sending more information in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, if you’d like to have a personal conversation about this issue, or simply just need further background, please reach out through Joni@ConsumerHealthAdvocates.net.

 
Joni Inman
Executive Director
Consumer Health Advocacy & Information Network

Posted on

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.

Facebook X-twitter
Posted on

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.

Posted on

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
Posted on

2024 National Civics Bee

2024 National Civics Bee

CHAIN is pleased to have, once again, been part of this year’s National Civics Bee, during its first round of competition with the Arvada Chamber of Commerce. Local middle school students competed in a live quiz event, April 13, to test their civics knowledge. The finalists received various prizes, and the first-place student received a check for $500. These kids are amazing!

Posted on

Colorado beats U.S. Congress to the punch on critical PBM reform. Congress must finish the job of PBM reform NOW.

Colorado State Capitol

Colorado beats U.S. Congress to the punch on critical PBM reform. Congress must finish the job of PBM reform NOW.

Colorado State Capitol

Over the past five years, several not-so-productive bills have passed the Colorado legislature to supposedly lower prescription drug prices. This legislative session, however, something really meaningful happened for Colorado patients.

The Colorado General Assembly passed House Bill 23-1201, which prohibits one of the many underhanded practices pharmacy benefit managers, known as “PBMs”, use to artificially inflate profits and drive up the cost of prescription medicines for everyone.

HB23-1201 was a bipartisan bill sponsored by Colorado Representatives Daugherty and Soper as well as Senators Mullica and Smallwood. The bill prohibits PBMs from further using ‘spread pricing.’ In simple terms, this is the practice of  having the PBM charge its client – an insurance company or company that self-insures its employees –  a higher price than the PBM pays the pharmacy for dispensing the same drug to the same covered member.

In other words, PBMs have been charging the equivalent of a hotel ‘resort fee,’ a meaningless mark-up that provides nothing but increased profits that in turn drives up prescription drug prices while shorting local pharmacists. It’s a lose-lose-lose scheme that our state legislature finally outlawed. The bill now sits on Gov. Polis’ desk, and we urge its immediate signing.

Last year the top PBMS — companies who claim their role is to save Americans money on the skyrocketing cost of medicines — took in $450,000,000,000. That’s $450 billion, $50 billion more than the top six drug makers earned in 2021.

They derive this windfall from an impenetrable web of rigged contracts and high-pressure tactics that would make a crime boss blush. A blizzard of reports by Congress, non-partisan groups, and industry experts have highlighted these practices and called for a massive overhaul of the PBM system.

Thankfully a hearing is set for Thursday, May 11, to consolidate PBM reform efforts and write meaningful legislation to reform the PBM’s unsavory practices.

Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and William Cassidy (R-LA) are leading the charge, with Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper as a member of the HELP Committee. They need our support against the intense pressure coming from the battalion of lobbyists that we – America’s prescription drug patients – help pay for.

CHAIN backs the herculean effort to crack down on the PBM monopoly and go after the real cause of skyrocketing drug prices in America. And we urge Colorado’s US Senators Hickenlooper and Bennet to be front and center in finishing the job Congress has started.

To learn more, go here and check out our ads on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/BetterHealth4CO

Posted on

Heartfelt Congratulations and Gratitude to the 2023 National Civic Bee Participants in Arvada, CO

2023 National Civic Bee in Arvada, Colorado

Heartfelt Congratulations and Gratitude to the 2023 National Civic Bee Participants in Arvada, CO

2023 National Civic Bee in Arvada, Colorado

On behalf of CHAIN, we would like to extend our warmest congratulations to each and every one of you who participated in the National Civic Bee held in Arvada, Colorado on April 18th, 2023. Your dedication, enthusiasm, and knowledge of civics have contributed to the success of this incredible event.

We know that preparing for the National Civic Bee is no small feat. It takes countless hours of hard work, research, and practice to attain the level of expertise displayed by all of you. Your passion for civic education and your commitment to fostering an informed and engaged citizenry are truly inspiring. Your accomplishments reflect not only your individual talents but also the support and encouragement from your family, friends, educators, and mentors.

As you move forward, we hope that you will continue to champion the importance of civic education in your communities. You have demonstrated that you are not only well-informed citizens but also engaged and responsible members of society. The future of our democracy depends on individuals like you, who are committed to upholding the values and principles that bind us together.

Once again, congratulations on your achievements and thank you for your participation in the National Civic Bee. We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, and we are confident that you will continue to make a positive impact in your communities.

Posted on

Critical Action on April 19th Battling the Counterproductive HB23-1225, “Extend and Modify the Prescription Drug Affordability Board

Colorado Legislative Session

Critical Action on April 19th Battling the Counterproductive HB23-1225, "Extend and Modify the Prescription Drug Affordability Board

Colorado Legislative Session

Tomorrow the Colorado Senate Health & Human Services Committee will hold its hearing on HB23-1225 (the “Bride of PDAB”).

Colorado consumers, healthcare providers and business organizations are part of a broad coalition opposed to this ill-advised legislation.

They – and we – have already seen how Colorado’s drug price control bureaucracy – the Prescription Drug Affordability Board – has cost taxpayers an average of $80,000 a month to date with zero savings, while Coloradans dependent on life-saving drugs have NO assurances around drug accessibility and the likelihood of access being compromised.
 
Now, Colorado lawmakers are looking to expand PDAB through HB23-1225. The bill removes the two key guardrails of the original program that legislators agreed to, to ensure that the potential damage of the PDAB program could be mitigated. Instead, HB23-1225 gives PDAB carte blanche to set an Upper Payment Limit for any qualified drug (as opposed to the original twelve drug limit). We should be going in the opposite direction.
 
Upper Payment Limits set the price that physicians, hospitals, pharmacists and clinics are allowed to pay for certain drugs, regardless of what the drug actually costs. Mandating what providers can pay for a drug is tantamount to making it unavailable if the purchase price exceeds the state-controlled price. This unproven and potentially damaging approach contrasts greatly to the action other states are taking to generate real savings for drug patients.

For just one example of the risks and concerns being created by the PDAB legislation, read through this recent opinion piece by patient advocate Kris Garcia and learn how PDAB could very well endanger  access to life-saving drugs. https://www.coloradopolitics.com/opinion/consider-rare-diseases-with-rx-affordability-board-opinion/article_665aa284-db39-11ed-bb3e-5f8ec7580934.html

CHAIN opposes HB-1225 and is continuing to educate lawmakers about the scores of unanswered questions on how this bill may compromise patient access to life-saving drugs and how we can be assured that more taxpayer dollars aren’t squandered in delivering ZERO savings for Colorado patients.

PLEASE JOIN WITH US IN OPPOSING HB23-1225, “The Bride of PDAB”.  Contact your legislators and link up with our Twitter stream with #ZeroSavingsCO.