Treatment Challenges for People with Headache and Migraine Disease

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Today, approximately 12 percent of the global population experiences migraine attacks. And more than one third of these people have at least 15 migraine days per month.

More than “just a headache,” migraine is a hereditary neurological disease that affects people both physically and mentally. In addition to the pain of migraine attacks, the disease negatively affects patients’ ability to work, social relationships with family and friends, and the ability to provide basic self-care and to undertake normal life activities.

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Prior Authorization: A Position Statement

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Prior Authorization: A Position Statement

Patients can be denied access to their medicine for days, even weeks because of a practice called “prior authorization.” It’s the process whereby insurance companies must approve a physician-prescribed medicine, procedure or test before a patient can get coverage.

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Protecting Patient Access to Treatments for Neurodegenerative Diseases

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Protecting Patient Access to Treatments for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Millions of Americans and their families deal with the debilitating effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s.

For years, failed attempts to find treatments that would slow, stop, or cure these illnesses have discouraged researchers and patients. Although there are no cures for these progressive conditions, there are now treatments that can improve symptoms and quality of life, and there are promising new therapies in development.

Yet as patients and physicians look forward to these breakthrough treatments, a new concern looms: Will health plans and coverage policies allow patients to access long-awaited treatments for neurodegenerative diseases?

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Improving Access to Respiratory Care

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Improving Access to Respiratory Care


Respiratory illnesses are pervasive, chronic conditions that exist quietly in millions of Americans. Patients manage their breathing with varying degrees of success, since the ability to keep on top of symptoms depends heavily on a patient’s personal circumstances. 

Paradoxically, respiratory health rarely gets the policy attention it deserves. The current health care paradigm is one of disease treatment, rather than disease prevention. Though prevention is the cornerstone of good respiratory health, the United States has fallen behind in addressing health care delivery for day-to-day treatment of chronic conditions. 

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Overcoming Barriers to Dermatological Treatment

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Overcoming Barriers to Dermatological Treatment

Skin is an organ like no other. It can be seen and touched; it is instantly visible on ourselves and others. And in addition to dictating much of our outward appearance—which has vast social significance—our skin allows us our sense of touch and serves as armor protecting us from hostile environments and microbes. 

Just as skin serves multiple functions, conditions impacting our skin can have a multifaceted impact. People who have skin conditions may experience feelings of isolation due to how the appearance of their skin is perceived. For patients with conditions like psoriasis or eczema that are connected to stress, these feelings can be doubly painful—isolation breeds stress, which in turn exacerbates the condition. Skin conditions can undermine a patient’s ability to function at work, school, home, or other social situations, meaning they can have a serious impact on a patient’s financial security and emotional stability. 

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Improving Access to Cardiovascular Care

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Improving Access to Cardiovascular Care

The scope of cardiovascular disease’s cost, both financial and in human suffering, should not be underestimated. Heart disease costs the United States an estimated $30.7 billion per year. And the situation is only going to grow worse: The American Heart Association projects that 40.5 percent of the U.S. population will have some form of CVD by the year 2030.

The good news is that cardiovascular disease sits at the apex of priorities for the U.S. healthcare system. As a result, patients and physicians have access to a range of effective and time-tested treatments, such as statins, beta blockers and ACE inhibitors, as well as life-changing devices, such as pacemakers. Over the past few years, treatment options have expanded further to include significant new therapies that can help more patients gain better control over their symptoms, experience fewer side effects, and live longer lives with conditions like heart failure, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

But obstacles threaten patients’ access to both new options and old, dissuading or outright preventing them from obtaining the best therapy or device. That’s because healthcare concerns are trumped by decisions based on short-term benefits. But by carefully advocating long-term solutions backed by experts—the physicians and providers on the front lines treating cardiovascular disease—we can radically improve the heart health of our nation.

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National Survey of Attitudes Toward Cardiovascular Treatment & Access

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National Survey of Attitudes Toward Cardiovascular Treatment & Access

An attitudinal survey of more than 350 heart disease patients, providers, caregivers and stakeholders revealed widespread concerns about how health plans delay access to life-saving medication. The issue affects a broad swath of the country. One-third of Americans have high LDL cholesterol, putting them at increased risk for heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Meanwhile, one American has a heart attack every 40 seconds. For these people, unreasonable medication delays caused by prior authorization or step therapy can be serious, even life threatening.

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Protecting Access to Diabetes Care

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Protecting Access to Diabetes Care

Almost 1 in 10 Americans – men, women, and children of all ethnicities and income levels – has diabetes. One of the most common medical conditions in America, diabetes has become more widespread in recent years, increasing by more 1 million people between 2012 and 2015 alone.

Not surprisingly, diabetes is an expensive disease. In 2017 diabetes cost the United States $237 billion in direct medical costs and $90 billion in reduced productivity, accounting for about one in every four health care dollars spent. People with diabetes incurred an average per-patient cost of $16,750 a year.

Diabetes’ impact and prevalence demand policies that allow people to access appropriate medications and effective health care.

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Movement Disorders: Impact and Access to Treatment

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Movement Disorders: Impact and Access to Treatment

Movement disorders are neurological conditions that cause involuntary or abnormal voluntary body movements, or slow, reduced movements. They afflict millions of people—patients themselves, and also families, caregivers, communities, the health care system, and the economy.

Many conditions fall under the umbrella of movement disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, tardive dyskinesia, Huntington’s disease, dystonia, essential tremor, Tourette syndrome, ataxia, restless legs syndrome, and others. Causes of various movement disorders range from nerve diseases (the cause of Parkinson’s) to injuries, autoimmune diseases, infections, and certain medications. Some are genetic disorders, passed on from one generation to the next.

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Improving Patient Access to Hepatitis C Cures

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Improving Patient Access to Hepatitis C Cures

As many as 5 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C, a virus that is slowly wreaking havoc on their livers and may eventually kill them. Breakthrough medications that cure the disease are now available, but they come with a high price tag and are unaffordable for many. Complex insurance and governmental program requirements effectively ration the drugs—a move that states, employers, and insurers argue is necessary because they simply cannot afford the medications for everyone who needs them. Yet this practice may require some patients to suffer unnecessarily, while their physicians know that they could be cured with these new medications.

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Protecting Cancer Care

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Protecting Cancer Care

Historically, cancer care has been protected from many of the insurance issues that have beset other diseases. The life threatening nature of cancer was recognized by physicians, patients, and payers alike, and the barriers to obtaining payments from insurers were minimal. Over the past decade, however, this situation has changed. Policies dictated by insurers have begun to erode the protection that formerly characterized coverage of cancer treatment. This trend is manifested by reduced patient access to high quality cancer care and a lack of transparency regarding the recommended treatments.

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