Hundreds of transplant patients, physicians, and health equity advocates join Honor the Gift rally on Capitol Hill to implore President Biden and HHS Secretary Becerra to immediately restore Medicare coverage of critical blood tests that detect organ tran
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE-02), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), co-sponsors of the Living Donor Protection Act, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, Reverend Al Sharpton, civil rights and social justice leader, and Al B. Sure!, universally celebrated recording artist and liver transplant recipient, joined the Honor the Gift coalition and the American Association of Kidney Patient's (AAKP) Chair of Policy and Global Affairs Paul T. Conway, and other leaders in the field for a press conference on Capitol Hill, calling on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, and President Joe Biden to stop the current attempt by private contractors to rollback Medicare coverage for innovative molecular blood tests for transplant patients.
- The critical tests at issue help detect organ transplant rejection early and reduce the need for invasive biopsies.
- For example, many transplant patients receive these sequential blood tests post-transplant to monitor their transplanted organ.
- The results of each blood test can provide a potential early warning of organ transplant rejection and injury before other indicators.
- Especially troubling is that some of these patients who have not received testing may unknowingly be suffering from asymptomatic organ transplant rejection.