time sensitive action alert! Deadline:august 24

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. 

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, but after more than two years its review has not started.

Since 1996, the US Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) has recommended Latent Tuberculosis (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.
  

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

See a fact sheet from Stop TB USA and multiple organizations here.

Sample script: 

As your constituent and someone who cares about everyone’s health, 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 TB vaccine. [Add a sentence about why you care.]* Therefore, will your boss speak to the Chair and Ranking Member of the LaborHHS Appropriations Subcommittee in support of $225 million for CDC’s TB programs for FY27? I look forward to hearing a response. [Leave phone number or email if you wish to receive a response.] 

Bonus points if you write us at leadership@stoptbusa.org and tell us how your calls went! 

*Suggestions:

1. "I lost a close friend to TB, and I know how devastating this disease can be." 

2. "The USAID cuts are expected to lead to 10.7 million more TB cases and 2.2 million unnecessary deaths." 

3. "I work in healthcare and know how interconnected our world is — fighting TB here helps fight it everywhere." 

4.  "Early testing and treatment saves lives — and costs less. For governments, prevention today means fewer expenses tomorrow." 

Find other actions you can take at our coalition partners website at https://results.org/volunteers/action-center/action-alerts