63. Revisiting Advocacy in Rheumatology

Most may find the topic of advocacy to be uninteresting or too big to tackle with such busy schedules. However, our guests this week, Dr. Belinda Birnbaum, MD and Lennie Shewmaker McDaniel, JD, truly breathe life into this matter while explaining the role the American College of Rheumatology has on Capitol Hill and how you (yes YOU) can play an important and rewarding role. We discuss what RheumPAC is, how the ACR identifies key issues affecting our patients, highlight past successes of the ACR’s advocacy group, plus cover important issues currently being presented to Congress such as “Transparency within Pharmacy Benefit Managers” and “Challenges of Step Therapy”.