action alert

Call the Capitol Switchboard at 1-202-224-3121 and ask for your senator/representative or give your state if you do not know their name. When you are connected to an office, ask for the Health Legislative Assistant. If you leave a voicemail message, include your name, phone number, and email so that they can respond.

You can also download the 5calls.org app (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/5-calls-contact-your-congress/id1202558609). It will find the direct numbers for your Representative and Senators and connect you automatically. 

See sample messages and actions below!

Sample script: As your constituent and a public health advocate, I urge you to speak out against CDC cuts and in favor of bolstering our TB programmatic and research funding. Since TB anywhere is TB everywhere, we cannot afford the risk of increased rates of transmission or a rise in drug resistance. Further, we can vastly accelerate the pace of TB elimination by supporting new technologies, like a much-needed point-of-care test and vaccine. [Add a sentence about why you care.] Will your boss speak to the Chair and Ranking Member of the HHS Appropriations Subcommittee in support of $225 million for CDC’s TB programs? I look forward to hearing a response. [Leave phone number or email if you wish to receive a response.]

A formal request to CMS for a national coverage determination (NCD) co-signed by more than 25 academic, medical, public health and community-based organizations was submitted to the CMS on January 31, 2024. Although the request was accepted, due to the current volume of requests and low staffing, no action is currently being taken.

Since 1996, the US Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) has recommended LTBI screening of adults with increased TB risk as part of primary care. Despite this, the CMS has never had an NCD for this important component of preventive care.

TB affects older Americans and Medicare beneficiaries; over 25% of new TB diagnoses occur among persons over the age of 65 years.

• An estimated 15 million Americans in the Medicare population would be eligible for screening under the USPSTF recommendations.
• Nearly 15% of Medicare recipients are born outside of the US, an important risk factor for TB infection and disease in the US.
  
• Medicare recipients also have other comorbidities that can increase the risk of developing active TB.
  
• Notably, the prevalence of diabetes is > 30% among Medicare recipients over 67 years of age.
• A one-time screening of the Medicare-eligible population who meet the USPSTF criteria for LTBI testing is estimated to prevent over 9,000 cases of this devastating disease and over 2,000 TB deaths.
  

Therefore, ask your Senators to write to Administrator Mehmet Oz of the National Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to ask they prioritize this NCD request and promptly issue a national coverage decision for LTBI testing.

We need Congress to speak up. Even as we deal with the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must enact longer-term funding of initiatives like global TB prevention and treatment as well as building basic public health infrastructure. Click here and scroll down to the "action" box that inspires you the most, and take an easy action from your home/desk! The American Public Health Association also has an easy online action option requesting Congress increase funding for public health infrastructure here.

See more TB basics and advocacy toolkits from the Treatment Action Group (TAG) here.