American Plasma Users Coalition awarded $40,000 advocacy grant from CSL Behring

CSL Behring announced today that it has awarded a $40,000 advocacy grant to the American Plasma Users Coalition (A-PLUS) through its Local Empowerment for Advocacy Development (LEAD) program. LEAD grants support the grassroots advocacy efforts of organizations that help people who use plasma-derived or recombinant therapies to manage rare and serious medical disorders. CSL Behring has awarded more than $600,000 in grants to patient organizations since the LEAD program was established in 2008.

The grant will be used to create the A-PLUS State Exchange Project, which will educate state advocates on the development of state insurance exchanges, including federally defined essential health benefits that establish the minimum requirements of exchanges.  The project will also help state advocates educate patients about implementation of the exchanges and how they can participate to ensure that access to specialized care and treatments will be maintained in the plans offered through the state insurance exchanges.

A-PLUS partners include:

• Alpha-1 Association
• Alpha-1 Foundation
• Committee of Ten Thousand
• GBS/CIDP Foundation International
• Hemophilia Federation of America
• Immune Deficiency Foundation
• Jeffrey Modell Foundation
• National Hemophilia Foundation
• Patient Services Incorporated
• Platelet Disorder Support Association

Larry LaMotte, Director of Government Affairs for the Immune Deficiency Foundation said, "This project will allow each organization's volunteers to be educated and trained to advocate effectively on behalf of their patient population and to make sure the development of state health exchanges provides protections for all patients with rare and chronic diseases. 

"The second benefit will be the development of trained patients to educate and assist other patients to be able to choose wisely the best insurance plans when the health care reform law goes into effect in January, 2014. The third benefit is that this project will allow the opportunity for plasma users of the different patient communities to work together as advocates in their respective states to affect the public policies that may affect them."

According to Michelle Rice, Regional Director for Chapter Services at the National Hemophilia Foundation, many of those affected by bleeding disorders have already been positively impacted by the new patient protections provided in the Affordable Care Act. "The expansion of state Medicaid programs and the creation of state health insurance exchanges in 2014 have the potential to offer consumers something many have never experienced – choices for health care coverage," Rice said.

CSL Behring's Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Dennis Jackman added, "We are looking for opportunities to collaborate with patient organizations to advance advocacy initiatives. Providing a LEAD grant to A-PLUS for the state exchange project will positively impact patients represented by all the coalition members. The state insurance exchanges are a crucially important area where education and advocacy are needed, and we are very pleased to support this effort." 

LEAD grants are awarded semi-annually. CSL Behring considers grant proposals that relate to bleeding and platelet disorders, immune deficiencies, pulmonary disease and critical care. The submission deadline for the next round of grants is April 30, 2012. Applications, specific criteria for applying and more information about the LEAD program are available at www.cslbehring.com/leadgrants.

SOURCE CSL Behring