Tagged with “advocacy”
October 9, 2024
For more than a decade this blog has covered the growing recognition by policy makers and in the peer reviewed literature that traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) of all kinds should not be treated as a static event from which patients gradually recover over time.
In many cases, the TBI is the beginning of a disease process that can cause symptoms that change over time, in some cases getting better instead of worse, and that can impact multiple organ systems.
In 2009 this led a leading advocacy group, the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), to issue a position paper in favor of recognizing TBIs as a “chronic health condition.” The BIAA has continued to advocate this position. The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid (the latter in cooperation with states) has now adopted this position as well, recognizing TBI as a chronic health condition effective January, 2025. This will lead to both increased public health resources – to address the lifelong impacts of brain injury – and to enhanced benefits from health insurance plans like Medicare and Medicaid. Read More
January 4, 2016
On December 22, Fred Upton, Chair of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee announced that his committee with commence a “broad review” of concussion science in 2016. Read More
November 18, 2014
On the evening of November 13, 2014 the U.S. House of Representatives passed S. 2539, the Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act of 2014, (TBIRA) sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and co-sponsored by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA). The next step is for the bill to be signed by President Obama.
With Republicans and Democrats bitterly divided on most public policy issues, it is encouraging to see them come together on how to approach what is now being recognized as a serious public health issue – traumatic brain injury. Read More
May 8, 2013
The “BRAIN” initiative, which stands for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, is already underway at the National Institute of Health (NIH). And, on April 2, 2013 President Obama announced that his 2014 budget will include $110 million in funding to advance the initiative, which supports human brain research that could be used to treat a range of neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury (TBI).
I expect the additional funds to elevate the project’s urgency, as it would be a joint effort of the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Science Foundation along with other private and public entities. If this initiative goes forward, it also promises to augment work already underway at other research centers throughout the country.
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