Author Archives: Patrick Stone

Lessons from COVID-19: Step Therapy Should Not Be a Barrier to Patient Access

By Taruja Karmarkar, Patrick Stone, Jennifer Graff The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated Americans’ challenges in accessing much-needed and effective care. One such hurdle, step therapy, requires patients to try a clinically recognized, lower cost first-line therapy before reimbursement for an alternative therapy prescribed by the physician and can delay access to care. Pre-pandemic, experts expressed…

Continuing our legislative mission in 2019

We didn’t know what to expect in 2018 because our elected officials were so focused on the midterms. But it turned out to be a rewarding year for our volunteers, who wrote to and met with their legislators in state capitols and on Capitol Hill. In Minnesota and New Mexico, we focused on reforming step therapy, which occurs…