AANS and CNS Support the Safe Step Act

On March 16, the AANS and the CNS joined the Alliance of Specialty Medicine in supporting the Safe Step Act (S. 464/H.R. 2163), sponsored by Sens. Lisa A. Murkowski (R-Alaska), Margaret Wood Hassan (D-N.H.), Bill Cassidy, MD, (R-La.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) in the Senate, and Reps. Raul Ruiz, MD, (D-Calif.), Brad Wenstrup, DPM, (R-Ohio), Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, MD, (R-Iowa) in the House. Health insurers often use step therapy — also called “fail first” — to control costs. Step therapy occurs when insurers require patients to fail the first step of treatment — typically a generic or low-cost drug — before moving on to the second step. This legislation would require health plans to establish specific exceptions to medication step-therapy protocols.

Click here to read the Alliance of Specialty Medicine letter.