APHON signed on to the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the regulation of laboratory-developed tests (LDTs), including pediatric LDTs.

APHON joined the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO), and other sickle cell disease (SCD) partners and sent a letter to Representatives Danny Davis (D-IL-7) and Michael Burgess, MD, (R-TX-26) and Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Tim Scott (R-SC) to advocate for the development of a Medicaid demonstration project focused on SCD.

APHON signed on the Patient Quality of Life Coalition (PQLC) letter to House and Senate leaders supporting the request from Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Representative Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY-9) to support the bipartisan Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (PCHETA). The letter encourages Congress to use PCHETA as a model to grow, improve, and sustain the palliative care and hospice workforce in the upcoming reconciliation package.

Fifty-three members of the Nursing Community Coalition (NCC) signed onto a letter to the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee urging them to support and advance the US Cadet Nurse Corps Service Recognition Act of 2021.

APHON published a letter in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution with the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America (SCDAA), and 14 other major health organizations highlighting the impact of recently enacted voting restrictions in Georgia, which are expected to disproportionately affect minority communities.

APHON and the Alliance for Childhood Cancer sent a letter thanking Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Jack Reed (D-RI) for introducing and working to pass the Senate resolution to designate May 17 as DIPG Awareness Day. This raises awareness and encourages research into cures for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and pediatric cancers in general.

APHON and the Alliance for Childhood Cancer met with the Biden-Harris Administration to discuss the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as it is being developed. ARPA-H would be a new agency intended to drive transformational innovation in biomedical research that has been proposed by President Joe Biden. In addition to the meeting, APHON provided specific input to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well.

The Nursing Community Coalition (NCC) sent a congratulations letter to Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who was confirmed as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently reintroduced the US Cadet Nurse Corps Service Recognition Act, a bill that honors women who served in the US Cadet Nurse Corps during WWII with honorary veteran status. We are proud to share that APHON was named as an endorser, alongside several other nursing organizations, in a press release announcing the reintroduction of the bill. APHON has endorsed this bill since last Congress. In addition, APHON signed on to Nursing Community Coalition letters to Senator Warren and Representative Cheri Bustos (D-IL-17) and a bipartisan group of 40 original cosponsors thanking them for reintroducing the act in the Senate and House.

APHON signed on to American Association for Cancer Research’s (AACR) letter thanking Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) for their resolution recognizing May as National Cancer Research Month. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act of 1971.