Thursday, June 8, 2017

Colorado Passes Law Restricting Step Therapy!

As part of my whirlwind of a completely crazy spring, you might recall that I went down to Denver a few times to testify on a piece of legislation at the state level concerning step therapy. For those who don't know, step therapy is a practice used by insurance companies that requires patients to try and "fail" lower-cost medications before the medication actually prescribed by their doctor will be approved. 

Although we didn't manage to achieve every point we were advocating for, I'm still excited to announce that Senate Bill 203 was signed into law by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper on May 2, 2017! This important bill stops insurance companies from requiring patients to go through a step therapy process if they've already gone through a step therapy process with their current or former insurer. This will increase access to needed treatment for many patients - not just arthritis patients! - by limiting the application of step therapy. Not to mention making many patients' lives a whole lot easier!

I'm proud to have been a part of the process and hope to continue speaking up on important issues for people living with chronic illnesses!!

Read more about SB203 on the Arthritis Foundation Advocacy Blog!

1 comment:

Rick Phillips said...

I advocated for the Indiana law a few years ago and we did not get all of what we wanted either. All starts are good, it is hard to tell how far we can go when we start.