Press Releases

USAgainstAlzheimer’s Disappointed with Decision Limiting Innovative Diagnostic Tool Coverage

October 1, 2013

USAgainstAlzheimer’s Disappointed with Medicare’s Final Decision To Limit Coverage of Innovative Diagnostic Tool

Despite public protest, decision will bar thousands of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients from access to PET beta-amyloid scans that help optimize diagnoses

AFRICAN AMERICANS BEAR MORE THAN ONE-THIRD OF U.S. ALZHEIMER’S COSTS

September 19, 2013

AFRICAN AMERICANS BEAR MORE THAN ONE-THIRD OF U.S. ALZHEIMER’S COSTS

AfricanAmericanNetworkAgainstAlzheimer’s Launches with New Report on Alzheimer’s Disparities

African American Network Against Alzheimer’s to Partner with Award Winning Playwright Garrett Davis

August 29, 2013

African American Network Against Alzheimer’s to Partner with Award Winning Playwright Garrett Davis

Davis, Founder of the Forget Me Not Project, Brings Innovative Approach to Advocacy in Effort to Fulfill Network’s Mission to End Alzheimer’s by 2020

USAgainstAlzheimer's & ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer's Send Comments to CMS Re. PET Amyloid Scans

August 6, 2013

Earlier this month, CMS proposed a policy that would severely limit Medicare beneficiaries being evaluated for dementia from an innovative new technology capable of providing a more precise diagnosis as to the form of dementia and enabling patients to receive timely and effective treatments and care. USAgainstAlzheimer’s has been highly critical of this proposal and has marshaled our resources to change this policy. Comments from USAgainstAlzheimer’s as well as our affiliate network ResearchersAgainstAlzheimer’s were submitted on Friday to CMS.

Hundreds of Alzheimer’s Advocates Urge CMS to Support Coverage of Innovative Diagnostic Scans

August 2, 2013

Hundreds of Alzheimer’s Advocates Urge CMS to Support Coverage of Innovative Diagnostic Scans

Safe and effective PET beta-amyloid scans will allow doctors to advise patients on the proper course of care and speed clinical trials

WASHINGTON, DC – Nearly 350 Alzheimer’s advocates submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) this week, urging the agency to provide coverage for a tool able to more precisely diagnose patients being evaluated for dementia.

Why 2020?

USAgainstAlzheimer’s has retained its goal of stopping Alzheimer’s by 2020 rather than endorsing the goal of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease that calls for preventing and effectively treating the disease by 2025. While we support the national plan and its goals, we believe, as most every family touched by Alzheimer’s disease believes, that preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer's by 2025 is simply too long a wait for concrete progress. There are promising avenues of drug discovery and development that will, if successful, deliver a means of slowing or deferring Alzheimer's symptoms by 2020. By voicing the urgency felt by so many families, we will pressure researchers and industry to do all in their power to make that happen.