Florida Congressman Vern Buchanan (R) announced a new bipartisan bill called the ASAP Act, which ensures that seniors have timely access to innovative diagnostic tests that can detect Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in their earliest stages.
Congressman Buchanan, alongside Congressman Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), introduced the bill in the House, while Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
Under current Medicare laws, the program can only cover preventive services that Congress has specifically authorized. This process can delay coverage for years after screening tests receive FDA approval. The ASAP Act aims to modernize that process by authorizing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide Medicare coverage for FDA-approved or cleared blood-based tests for the early detection of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
“Early detection is the key to giving families more time, more options, and more hope,” Buchanan said in a press conference. “Having served as a caretaker to an elderly parent and with nearly 200,000 seniors in my district, this issue is deeply personal to me. With 7.2 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s nationwide, expanding access to early detection means giving more families the chance to plan, seek care sooner, and preserve their quality of life.”
“Many pioneering and potentially life-changing advancements are being made in Alzheimer’s diagnoses, treatment, and care, but they will mean little unless patients can access and afford them,” Congressman Tonko expressed. “This is where Congress can and must act.”
In Florida, caring for Alzheimer’s patients costs the state’s Medicaid program $3.7B annually, while over 870,000 caretakers provide $1.3M in unpaid care. The bill intends to simultaneously take the financial load off of caregivers and Medicaid programs by preventing more cases of Alzheimer’s from even beginning.
“Alzheimer’s is not a partisan issue but a human one that affects families in every community across the nation,” Buchanan wrote in an article for RealClear Health.
