2月28日，星期三，新墨西哥州和全国其他17个州一起通过了限制步进疗法的立法。新墨西哥州州长苏珊娜·马丁内斯(Susana Martinez)签署的参议院第11号法案(Senate Bill 11)改革了强制患者尝试保险公司选择的药物的程序，使患者在使用医生最初开出的药物之前“先失败”。
Step therapy是一种保险惯例，要求患者在允许使用更昂贵的药物之前使用较低成本的药物——不管你的医生开了什么。即使你已经服用了昂贵的药物并且效果良好，这种情况也可能发生。Senate Bill 11 placed limits on this practice and helps get the right medicine to patients faster.
The Arthritis Foundation is thrilled that additional patient protections now exist in New Mexico and thank all legislators, specifically bill sponsors Senators Liz Stefanics, Gay Kernan and Representatives Liz Thomson, Monica Youngblood, and the governor for their support of this important bill.
The Arthritis Foundation was part of a coalition in New Mexico that was made up of approximately 25 patient and provider groups. Arthritis Foundation Advocates played an instrumental role by testifying on the bill and being featured in the Albuquerque Journal.
Katelyn, a special education teacher from Albuquerque, hasrheumatoid arthritis. She testified on this bill as she wants the treatment plan to continue to be between her and her doctor. You can read more about Katelyn’s story in anAlbuquerque Journal article.
Shanna, who has severe rheumatoid arthritis, wrote a letter to the editor in theAlbuquerque Journal, and testified this session about her step therapy experiences. She was forced to take an older, less expensive medication that was not recommended by her rheumatologist but was required by her insurance company. She had to then endure unnecessary pain for upwards of 9 months before the recommended medication was finally approved.
Both Katelyn and Shanna were ecstatic that this bill was signed into law by Governor Martinez.
凯特琳分享道:“作为一名特殊教育老师，我需要时刻为那些生活中需要稳定存在的学生们提供帮助。我不能因为错误的药物产生的副作用而浪费和学生在一起的时间。感谢您签署这项法案成为法律!”
Shanna says, “I am thankful that others won’t have to go through the same ordeal that I did now that New Mexico passed this bill into law. Thank you for your dedication to New Mexico patients!”
If you have a step therapy story, we want to hear from you.
You can learn more about advocacy and amplifying your voice by becoming an Arthritis Foundation Advocate!Sign up today!
I am currently in a real battle with my HMO. While this is not arthritis related, they have taken the only insulin I can use in my insulin pump and moved it to an unaffordable tier. There are only three meds approved for pumps, and I have a severe and dangerous allergy to the one they are forcing patients to use. My efforts so far have gone nowhere. The Grievance board merely spit my handbook back at me. The real issue though, is that they put formulary changes for some meds, but not all, on the web site before 2018 health exchange enrollment ended. The insulin change was not there. I selected the plan and found out in January that my insulin had been pushed to $100 per vial. This may not be entirely what the Arthritis foundation has been working on, but it’s pretty close and, it is very scary and unacceptable. Thus far I have found no help for the problem.
So amazed and glad to call u friend!