Dear Senators Booker and Scott and Representatives Davis and Burgess:
The undersigned organizations, all committed to improving outcomes for individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD), look to you for needed leadership in addressing the needs of this community. As we recognize the SCD patient and provider communities during Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month, we remain deeply concerned that those living with SCD have been impacted disproportionately by COVID-19 and continue to lack access to quality, state-of-the-art outpatient and preventive care for their disease. The four of you have a history of working in a bicameral and bipartisan manner to better the lives of people with SCD. Today, we write to ask you to join forces again and introduce legislation authorizing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to quickly develop a program for Medicaid beneficiaries to improve access to comprehensive outpatient care for individuals with SCD.
