The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a full committee markup of the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024 (HR 723) that would extend various Medicare telehealth flexibilities permitted during the COVID-19 pandemic through the end of Calendar Year 2026. Key provisions include removing geographic requirements, expanding originating sites for telehealth services and extending telehealth services for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics. The bill passed out of committee with bipartisan support.  

These telehealth flexibilities under Medicare are critical in ensuring access to patients regardless of where they live and are at risk of expiring should Congress fail to act before the December 31, deadline passed by the last Congress. Our own community has deeply benefited from telehealth expansions offered during the pandemic, especially as 50% of ocular melanoma patients have reported traveling more than 500 miles to receive care for metastatic disease per our VISION Registry. The MRF will continue to monitor and update our community on the status of HR 723 and other telehealth legislation.   

On the state level, the MRF has been combining efforts with California advocates to expand access to skin cancer screenings by urging their lawmakers to introduce or sponsor No Copay legislation. With legislation, this would remove financial barriers to early detection as skin cancer screenings are not a covered benefit under the Affordable Care Act’s Essential Health Benefits (EHB) preventive services and screenings provision. Currently, Illinois and Florida are the only states to pass legislation offering skin cancer screenings without a copay, deductible, or co-insurance.​ For more information, please read here. 

It is our goal to expand legislation to the state of California in order to detect more melanomas in their earliest stages and lower the number of California counties that receive late-stage melanoma diagnoses. Sign up to join our campaign on this issue and receive its action alerts here. 

Last month, California Assembly member Evan Low’s resolution, AJR 16, calling on Congress to explore policy options to improve the timeliness of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) sunscreen filter approval pathway passed and was chaptered by the California Secretary of State. While not binding, the resolution clearly communicates to Congress that the American people are eager for more options when it comes to sunscreen filters. Currently, many countries outside the United States have filters that offer broader protection against harmful UV rays as well as different formulations for darker or more sensitive skin. Unfortunately, the FDA has failed to approve any new filters since 1999, putting the United States decades behind peer countries.   

The MRF has worked to amplify this issue with federal lawmakers. Last December, the MRF participated in a Congressional briefing to educate Hill staffers on the health implications of delayed approvals and MRF advocates also asked lawmakers to send a Dear Colleague letter to the FDA urging alignment with international safety standards for sunscreen filter approvals in an effort to remove unnecessary hurdles to approval. The best sunscreen is the one you will wear, and the MRF is dedicated to ensuring that all Americans have access to sunscreens that work for them. 

The MRF joined a sign-on letter to Congressional leadership with over 165 patient advocacy and provider organizations in support of including the Safe Step Act (S.1339) in any end-of-year package addressing pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform.  
 
The Safe Step Act ensures that employer health plans, including their contracted PBMs, offer an expedient and medically reasonable step therapy exceptions process. Step therapy is a utilization management protocol in which a plan or PBM requires patients to try insurer-preferred medications and demonstrate that they do not work before the payer will cover the treatment initially selected by the patient and their provider. When medically inappropriate, step therapy delays access to needed care and can lead to severe or irreversible health outcomes for patients. 

The MRF recognizes the need to address utilization management tools such as step therapy and prior authorization in order to ensure patients are able to access the care that they need as determined by shared decision-making with their healthcare team. We will be monitoring federal legislation to see if any utilization management remediation provisions are included in an end of year package.