When rumors started circulating over the holidays that CMS was considering a new proposal to restrict access to certain classes of drugs under Medicare Part D, Thorn Run Partners was approached by a leading patient advocacy group whose constituents would be adversely affected. In a matter of days, TRP assembled a core group of patient and industry stakeholders to form a coalition.
Within eight weeks, the Partnership for Part D Access had mobilized; growing to over three dozen members, spearheading an intensive lobbying campaign, meeting with over 50 congressional offices, launching a state-of-the-art website, driving over 1000 stakeholder comments to CMS, and developing and executing a multidimensional communications plan.
And within 3 months of promulgating its proposed rule, CMS beat a hasty retreat and publicly announced it would be indefinitely postponing its implementation.