Foundation Supports Legislation Backing Cancer Treatment Coverage

NEWPORT NEWS, Va—A new organization, the National Patient Advocate Foundation (NPAF), has been created to support bills favoring patient access to insurance funding and encourage legislation on issues that threaten cancer patients' coverage for evolving therapies, therapeutic devices, or agents prescribed by their treating physicians.

Founding executive director Nancy Davenport-Ennis, a breast cancer survivor, said that the NPAF was instrumental in the passage of California Assembly Bill 1663, recently signed into law by Governor Pete Wilson. This bill outlines specific criteria for patient appeals when an HMO denies coverage.