Federal Policy Efforts

November 2025 - Social media posts asserting that individuals having prophylactic mastectomies will lose access to breast reconstruction have raised alarm. We are releasing this statement to allay these concerns. Legislation aimed at modernizing the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act will ensure access to breast reconstruction, prostheses, and related care (i.e., treatment of complications and lymphedema) for anyone having a mastectomy.

Expand Medicare coverage of genetic counseling, testing, cancer screening & prevention

September 2025 - Medicare covers genetic testing only for people already diagnosed with cancer. For those with an inherited mutation causing increased cancer risk, many screenings and risk-reducing interventions are not covered. FORCE is spearheading legislation to modify the Medicare statutes to allow coverage of these potentially life-saving services.

Incentives to Develop Therapies for Small Cancer Populations Preserved

July 2025 - Sucess! The ORPHAN Cures Act recently passed. This law remedies the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program’s narrow orphan drug provision, where an orphan drug is excluded from price negotiation only if it is approved to treat one rare disease. Much of the rare cancer therapy pipeline and progress over the last 40 years has relied on identifying additional uses for existing drugs to address the unmet needs of patients living with rare cancers or conditions. 

February 2024 - U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations guide the use of many health screenings and determine which preventive services are available to patients at no cost under the Affordable Care Act. FORCE submitted comments in response to the recently published draft USPSTF BRCA screening research plan. Once finalized, the latest studies will be analyzed and the guidelines will be updated accordingly.

August 30, 2023 – Today, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) notified FORCE that the recommendations on the Prevention of Lynch Syndrome-Related Cancer cannot “move” into the final research plan stage and evidence review at this time.” While not directly stated, it appears that the Task Force is under-resourced and currently doesn’t have the capacity to develop the guidelines.

August 21, 2023 - Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will keep the billing codes for flap breast reconstruction surgeries. This means every woman will have access to advanced breast reconstruction options like DIEP and GAP flap. The decision was in response to a coordinated effort by multiple stakeholders.