Advocacy in Action: More Funding for FSGS Research!

Remember When…

Back in January, FSGS was officially added to the list of conditions eligible for research funding through the Department of Defense’s 2015 Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP). This opened up a new $247.5 million funding source for FSGS researchers. When NKI and our patient families visited Washington DC earlier this year, we advocated to keep FSGS on the list and to increase the funding available for research.

More Good News:

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the 2016 Defense Appropriations budget including $31.2 million in additional funding for the Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program. FSGS made the list of eligible conditions again, so if the bill passes without changes, our researchers will have access to $278.7 million in 2016!

What’s Next?

The bill will have to be passed by the House and Senate and signed by the President before going into effect. We’ll be tracking it and keeping you updated as it moves through the legislative process.

Thank You!

Increased funding for research and including FSGS on the list of eligible DOD conditions were two of our “Asks” when we visited Capitol Hill. Thank you advocating in person, writing letters and emails, and making phone calls to increase government awareness of Nephrotic Syndrome diseases and the vital role that government funding plays in finding better treatments and cures! Keep it up and stay tuned for more opportunities to be an Advocate!

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INSIDE LOOK: 21st Century Cures

What is the 21^st Century Cures bill?

Co-sponsor of the bill, Fred Upton, describes our current situation as such: patients who need “the next generation of treatments and cures, but they do not have until the next generation to wait.”

This bill was designed to update, and effectively, accelerate the drug development process. It is funded by the federal sale of oil from the national reserve.

What does this bill actually do?

Guarantees 8.75 billion dollars to the National Institute of Health (NIH)

AND, 550 million dollars to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the course of the next five years

In that regard, 21^st Century Cures will be a huge win for the rare disease community by:

Ensuring mandatory funding for the NIH

Providing funds to the FDA to streamline the clinical trials process

Incentivizing the development of “orphan products,” which are medical products intended for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of rare diseases

Paving the way for the development of new cures and treatments for the 7,000 rare diseases—including NS—which currently have no approved treatment

Now that I know what the bill does, what can I do?

The legislative initiative, 21^st Century Cures, was passed in the House on July 10, 2015. HOWEVER, our work is not finished. Before this bill can become a reality, it must also pass the Senate.

Stay tuned for advocacy alerts from NephCure to see how you can get involved!

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Your Advocacy Creates Change – Living Donor Protection Act

P1130101 2/26/16 – Because of your efforts on Capitol Hill, the Living Donor Protection Act of 2016 was introduced yesterday by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-TX) in the House, and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) in the Senate. This legislation promotes organ donation and protects the rights of living organ donors. It is made possible in part by YOUR action on Kidney Community Advocacy Day, a joint advocacy event with the support of 16 separate kidney organizations and led by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN).For many patients with kidney failure, a transplant can be the best form of kidney replacement therapy. But today, more people than ever are waiting for this life-saving measure: a patient is added to the kidney transplant wait list every 14 minutes. In 2014, there were 101,168 people on the kidney transplant wait list, but only 5,536 living donor transplants performed that year. The Living Donor Protection Act would increase the number of kidney transplants by eliminating pointless barriers to donation.

This bill prohibits insurance companies from denying or limiting coverage and from charging higher premiums for living organ donors. It also clarifies that living organ donors can use Family Medical Leave Act time to recover from donation surgery and maintain job security. This important legislation will allow more Americans to consider living organ donation and help countless people receive the gift of life.

NephCure Kidney International strongly supports this bill and joins ASN and the National Kidney Foundation in urging members of Congress to support this bi-partisan legislation.

Want to make sure this bill becomes law? Tell your Senators and Representatives why it’s important to you, and urge them to cosponsor it. You can find supplemental documents to send to your congresspeople here.

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Advocacy Alert! Ask your Senators to sign FSGS funding letter

Contact both your Senators and ask that they sign on to Senator Debbie Stabenow’s (D-MI) letter supporting the inclusion of “focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)” as condition eligible for study through the Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program during the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 appropriations process (Urgent – Deadline for Signatures is March 11)

Background

Each year, the United States Senate crafts an annual Department of Defense (DoD) appropriations bill, which includes a list of conditions that are deemed “eligible for study” through the Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP). In order for a condition to be included, Senators need to support the condition and officially ask for its inclusion. Senators have many competing appropriations priorities and in order for them to support a condition-specific request, they need to be educated and asked to do so by their constituents. (You)

As a result of grassroots outreach, the Senate has recognized FSGS as a condition eligible for study annually for a number of years. This support allows FSGS researchers to compete for nearly $278 million in federal research funding each year.

Senators are currently working on the FY 2017 DoD appropriations bill and deciding which conditions will be included on the next PRMRP eligible conditions list. Being included on the list one year is no guarantee of being included again in the next year. At this critical time, please reach out to the offices of your Senators and ask that they “sign on to Senator Debbie Stabenow’s letter supporting the inclusion of “focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)” in the DOD PRMRP’s eligible conditions list for FY 2017.” Click here to read the letter.

Take Action

Recommended: Copy and paste the email template below, add your info (where prompted) and send it to NKI’s Washington Representative Phil Goglas at goglas@hmcw.org . Phil will forward your e-mail on to the appropriate staff person in your Senators’ offices on your behalf.

Reach out yourself to the Health Legislative Assistant in the Washington, DC, offices of both your U.S. Senators and ask for their support.
To identify the contact information for your Senators’ Health LAs, simply go to Senate.gov and select your State. If you call the office (the 202 number), the staff will tell you the name of the Health LA and let you leave a voicemail (you can use the message below as a script). E-mail is more effective, but the receptionist will not likely provide you with the Health LA’s e-mail address.
If you would like to e-mail the Health LAs in the offices of your Senators, please contact Phil at goglas@hmcw.org. He will provide you with their name and e-mail address.

Congressional deadlines are fast approaching, so you must reach out to your Senators this week (the first week of March) or early next week to have an impact.

Email Template

Dear Senator ____________,

Senator Debbie Stabenow is currently circulating a Senate sign on letter in support continuing to include “Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis” (FSGS) in the list of conditions deemed eligible for study through the Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program (PRMRP) during the FY 2017 appropriations process. On behalf of FSGS impacted families across the state, please contact Sam Schuiteman in Senator Stabenow’s office at Sam_Schuiteman@stabenow.senate.gov or 4-4822 to join this important letter by COB Friday, March 11^th.

FSGS is a rare and devastating kidney disease that is a leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Nearly 30,000 veterans suffer from ESRD and an additional 3,000 veterans are expected to reach ESRD each year with significant health disparities among African American due to variants of the APOL1 gene. In addition, researchers suggest there are new opportunities for investigating FSGS in the military population with respect to environmental exposures. More needs to be done to improve our understanding of the impact of FSGS among our military personnel and veterans. FSGS has been part of the PRMRP for some time, including FY 2016, and continued participation will lead to further scientific progress.

[OPTIONAL: Briefly tell your FSGS story in 2-4 sentences]

Thank you for your time and your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Address]

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Advocacy in Action – Nephrotic Syndrome Research Funding Support Letters

P1130101 Thank you to all of you who wrote to your Senators and Representatives asking them to support funding for Nephrotic Syndrome and FSGS research! Through your efforts, appropriations letters were sent to relevant subcommittee chairs in the House and Senate encouraging them to increase funding for these diseases. Four Senators signed the Senate letter and 27 Representatives signed the House letter.

Background

Each year, Congress decides how much federal funding should be applied to medical research activities and provides guidance to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on what conditions legislators are particularly interested in. Recently, Members of Congress have been deciding on the level of NIH funding for fiscal year (FY) 2017 and crafting the accompanying list of research recommendations. As a result of grassroots outreach, the community of individuals affected by glomerular diseases has educated many Member of Congress who have become champions on research and patient care issues.

House Letter

On behalf of the community, Congressmen Ryan Costello, Ted Deutch, and Alcee Hastings recently circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter on Capitol Hill that voices strong support for advancing research into FSGS and related conditions at NIH. We asked the entire NephCure community to encourage their representatives to sign on to the letter and the response was overwhelming!

Click here to see the letter and all 27 signatories.

Senate Letter

On the Senate side, Senator Debbie Stabenow lead a letter to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee asking them to include FSGS as a condition eligible for study in the Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program in the Fiscal Year 2017 Defense Appropriations Bill. Click here to read the letter and see the signatories.

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August is Advocacy Month

Be an advocate now! Meet with your legislators locally during the upcoming congressional recess to educate them about Nephrotic Syndrome and FSGS and to ask for their assistance with key legislative and policy issues.

Background
Members of Congress will be in their districts throughout the month of August. Legislators use this time away from Capitol Hill to meet with their constituents in their local offices and learn about the issues impacting the people they represent. Advocates for NephCure Kidney International can use this opportunity to schedule meetings with the local offices of their members of Congress to educate legislators about Nephrotic Syndrome and FSGS and how they can assist and support affected individuals. You do not need to be an expert in government to be effective, you just need to be willing to tell your story. NephCure will assist you with the rest. Taking action is easy:

Inform NephCure of your interest in making a local congressional visit by emailing cfix@nephcure.org. NephCure can help you locate the contact information for the local congressional office near you and assist you with scheduling a meeting.
Consider making a local visit as a group, with other patient families from your area or with your friends, family, colleagues, or neighbors.
Review NephCure’s legislative agenda, and ask us any questions you have about the issues by emailing cfix@nephcure.org.
Meet with the local office, tell your story, ask them for their assistance on key issues, provide them with the leave behind materials, and then report back to NephCure by completing this evaluation form.

About the Issues
Each year, NephCure outlines a federal advocacy agenda that is focused on advancing medical research, facilitating treatment development, and improving healthcare. This year, NephCure has outlined the following issues as part of our legislative agenda:

Provide $38.1 billion in fiscal year 2019, a $2 billion increase
- Provide a proportional increase for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the branch of the NIH that would most directly support NS and FSGS research.
- Provide a proportional increase for the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). Minorities are disproportionately affected by NS and FSGS, and this branch of the NIH could provide specific funding opportunities and training programs to benefit the community.
- Support rare disease research at the National Center for Translational Sciences (NCATS).
Continue to include FSGS as a disease eligible for study through the Department of Defense’s Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program
- As a result of this funding opportunity, over $2 million has gone to FSGS research
- The NKI community must continue to advocate in order for FSGS to be included every year
Co-Sponsor the “Chronic Kidney Disease Improvement in Research and Treatment Act of 2017 (H.R. 2644)”.
- This bill is aimed at improving the lives of individuals with chronic kidney disease by supporting research that identifies and eliminates barriers for transplantation
- This bill allows individuals to retain access to private insurance
- This bill is promotes access to home dialysis, which is associated with higher quality of life and better health
- Finally, this bill pays particular attention to chronic kidney disease in minority populations and aims to improvement access to treatment for underserved areas

This agenda is comprised of contemporary legislative and public policy issues impacting the kidney community. However, to be successful in your meetings you will not need to remember complicated political information, you just need to tell your story. The materials below can help you have a productive and effective meeting with your Senators and Representatives.

Toolkit for Successful Meetings

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Advocacy Alert! Action Required: Tell Congress to Preserve Protections for Chronic Disease Patients

Contact your House Member to ask them to support critical patient protections during the current healthcare reform effort

Tell Congress to Preserve Protections for Chronic Disease Patients

The leadership of the House of Representatives is continuing to work with conservative and moderate Republicans in an effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Their proposal, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), was pulled from consideration a few weeks ago when it could not muster the votes to pass. However, House leaders continue to try and find common ground in order to modify the House leadership bill to make it passable.

The emerging House leadership plan includes a number of provisions that would be devastating for patients with chronic, complex, and costly medical conditions. The bill would remove protections for individuals with pre-existing health conditions. It would also eliminate the ACA’s Essential Health Benefits—federal quality standards for health insurance policies.

In place of these protections, the bill would expand health savings accounts and tax credits, establish state risk sharing subsidies, and leave it to states to determine which essential health benefits they will offer—likely leading to lower quality benefits for patients with costly diseases.

For patients with costly health conditions, they could likely never put enough money in a health savings account, nor would they be able to take advantage of a tax break associated with not utilizing healthcare services. Further, segregating costly patients into high risk pools has not worked in the past and would jeopardize access for the most vulnerable.

Elimination of the federal mandate that insurers offer a minimum level of benefits and allow states the flexibility to decide these benefits would likely mean that many states would have the incentive to not recommend comprehensive benefits to those with pre-existing health conditions. Insurers could also dramatically hike premiums for those with expensive chronic health care needs.

The House of Representatives could vote on this bill when it returns on April 24^th from the Easter recess. Grassroots outreach and educating Members of Congress about the needs of chronic disease patients continues to influence the overall debate. At this time, please reach out to your House member and ask them to protect patients and oppose discriminatory and dangerous provisions.

Take Action

Secure the contact information for your House representative by visiting House.gov and using the “Find Your Senator/Representative” query tool in the upper right corner.

Call the office and ask for the Health Legislative Assistant. You can either leave a voicemail or request their e-mail address and send them a message using the template below.

Politely and occasionally follow up on your request. You should have an expectation that the office will respond to your specific concerns.

If you would like to do more, you can request a brief meeting with the staff at your members’ local offices (the location information is on their websites).

+++++++++++++++++

Dear _______,

My name is _________ and I am a constituent from _________. I am also an advocate for the community of individuals impacted by _________ (condition). I write to urge you to maintain stability for chronic disease patients as you and your colleagues consider healthcare reform and changes to the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The AHCA in its current form would be devastating for my community.

Segregating high cost patients into high risk programs has not worked in the past, even with a federal subsidy. Additionally, eliminating the federal mandate that insurers offer a minimum level of benefits would likely mean that many states could offer substandard benefits for those with pre-existing health conditions or hike premiums for the most vulnerable Americans in desperate need of essential healthcare.

Please make sure any proposal maintains crucial patient protections that promote access and prevent financial hardships. Specifically, please ensure any future proposal:

maintains essential health benefits
prohibits pre-existing condition discrimination
prohibits lifetime and annual caps on benefits
allows young adults to stay on family coverage until they are 26
limits out-of-pocket costs for patients in a meaningful way

[Add a paragraph of brief information about the medical condition you are concerned about. Tell your story.]

Thank you for your time and your consideration of this letter. Please tell me how you have responded to my request.

Sincerely,

[Name]

[Address]

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Advocacy Alert: Oppose Tax Reform

Advocacy Alert: Your Action Needed

Tell your Members of Congress to oppose tax reform provisions that harm individuals and families facing rare or chronic medical conditions

Take Action Now

Congress is currently working on a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S. tax code. The House has already passed a measure and the Senate hopes to consider its proposal early in December. The goal is for both chambers to pass their own bills before going to a conference to negotiate a final proposal. At this time, both the House and Senate tax reform bills include provisions that would harm those affected by rare and/or chronic medical conditions:

House Bill

Eliminates the Orphan Drug Tax Credit and provides no new alternative to continue to incentivize and facilitate the development of therapies for rare diseases.
Eliminates the Deduction for Medical Expenses which many patients and their families claim to help offset the costs of medical care.

Senate Bill

Eliminates Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate to purchase insurance and the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this action will result in 13 million Americans losing health coverage.
- With fewer Americans (especially healthy individuals) buying into the insurance market, costs for insurance could drastically increase as the market becomes flooded with individuals that use health insurance frequently
Drastically restructures the Orphan Drug Tax Credit to make it much less generous and applicable in a way that would drastically reduce rare disease therapy development.

As Congress continues to consider tax reform, and which provisions will be included in any final measures, please contact your Senators and House Representative and ask them to oppose provisions undermining the Orphan Drug Tax Credit, the Medical Expense Deduction, and the individual mandate.

How To Take Action:

Visit www.senate.gov and identify the contact information for your two Senators by selecting your state.
- Use the contact information for the DC office, which will include a phone number starting with 202
Visit www.house.gov and identify the contact information for your House Representative by entering your zip code in the upper right corner.
Call the offices and ask for the Health Legislative Assistant’s voicemail box or e-mail address.
Use the script below to leave or send a message.

Script for email or phone calls:

Dear _______,

My name is _________ and I am a constituent from [home town]. As the legislative process for tax reform continues to move forward, please oppose any provisions eliminating or diminishing the Orphan Drug Tax Credit, the Medical Expense Deduction, and the individual mandate to purchase insurance. As an advocate for patients and commonsense tax policy, the aforementioned provisions are essential to maintaining medical innovation and promoting comprehensive care.

[Explain a little about your particular situation]

Thank you for time and for your consideration of my request.

Sincerely,

[Name]
[Address]

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Background

House Letter

Senate Letter

Be an advocate now! Meet with your legislators locally during the upcoming congressional recess to educate them about Nephrotic Syndrome and FSGS and to ask for their assistance with key legislative and policy issues.

Advocacy Alert! Action Required: Tell Congress to Preserve Protections for Chronic Disease Patients

Take Action

Advocacy Alert: Your Action Needed

How To Take Action:

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