2021: A Year in Reflection

The end of 2021 is upon us and that makes this a timely opportunity to reflect on the work by the Community Access National Network (CANN). During an exceedingly busy news cycle, we have published fifty blogs (including this one) on a variety of topics ranging from the latest on policy and regulatory issues, as well as some personal perspectives. Our HIV-HCV Coinfection Watch and our Annual Monitoring Report tracked Hepatitis C (HCV) therapies covered under the State AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, Medicaid, Veterans Administration, as well as patient access via patient assistance programs, and other relevant news items affecting our patient community. We also conducted a community roundtable seeking to highlight the impacts of Covid-19 on public health programs aimed at addressing HIV, HCV, and substance use disorder (SUD).

Notably, CANN published the following six-part series designed to educate patients on various aspects of the 340B Drug Discount Program:

·        A Patient’s Guide to 340B: Why the Program Matters to You

·        A Patient’s Guide to 340B: Why Transparency Matters to You

·        A Patient’s Guide to 340B: Why Accountability Matters to You

·        A Patient’s Guide to 340B: Why the Decline in Charity Care Matters to You

·        A Patient’s Guide to 340B: Why the Middlemen Matters to You

·        A Patient’s Guide to 340B: Why Program Reform Matters to You

With Congress engaged in high-conflict communication, to abuse a euphemism, navigating public policy developments and pertinent issues to patients can be challenging. CANN remains committed to being an essential source of two-way communication, information, and education wherein patients write the narrative driving policy reforms and priorities. In this, we are ever grateful to the patients and caretakers who have engaged with us at every turn. Your stories matter and you are not alone in your experiences.

The diverse partnerships behind this work are critical to our success and as we end the year, we want to offer our gratitude to these essential partnerships, ranging from other patient advocacy organizations, public health associations, and industry partners.

The issues affecting our public health space of patient advocacy have not relented this year. Covid-19 has only emphasized the need to ensure these programs are effective and efficient while also highlighting the existing weaknesses and strengths of these programs. To be clear, the structural and pervasive drivers of health disparities have been named; racism, sexism, classism, ableism, and all other biases which reflect a moral justification for out ethical failings must be addressed in tandem with policy changes and adequate public health program funding in order for us to succeed in these fights for patient lives. Health equity cannot be meaningfully segregated from the policy mechanisms in which these disparities have survived in the face of another pandemic – when our collective awareness of these inequities and leverage to progress on these issues should have been their strongest and yet were not.

It’s with these things in mind, we want to leave you with the enduring sentiment that next year offers us yet another opportunity to approaches these challenges with fresh eyes and fresh ideas. We are indeed stronger together and we sincerely look forward to working with you all to move closer in realizing a world of greater access to care, fewer and smaller health disparities, and, ultimately, a more fair and loving environment in which to live our lives and raise our families.

Author’s note: I often end certain professional meetings with telling my colleagues “Love ya’ll”. It’s a sentiment I mean to depths of my soul. I am fortunate to work with some of the most amazing people in the world – folks who share an unbridled commitment to improving the lives of those around them. It’s from this same space I wish to offer each of you reading this a moment to breathe and the same open heartedness. I want to leave you all with a short story that has shaped me in more ways than I can count, The Perfect Heart, and an encouragement to tell someone you love them as soon as you can. May this next year be gentler with us all and find us giving away more pieces of our hearts.