Blood Advocacy Week 2024 kicks off next week. This annual America’s Blood Centers (ABC) event brings together organizations across the blood community and beyond that are committed to championing policies that expand access to blood products and ensure that all patients receive blood when needed. This year’s initiative includes more than 80 organizations, an increase over the more than 40 groups that participated last year.
Advocacy priorities for Blood Advocacy Week 2024 include:
- urging Congress to provide targeted federal funding to support blood centers’ local education and awareness efforts;
- establishing a demonstration program to examine the use of pre-hospital blood for traumatic injury patients;
- encouraging Congress to establish a pilot program to attract diverse and younger blood donors, and to improve testing for better patient matches; and
- establishing a demonstration program to allow reimbursement for palliative blood transfusions outside of the Medicare hospice benefit.
There will be a series of engaging events aimed at advocating for policies that not only expand the donor base but also increase access to life-saving blood products. ABC, its members, and partners will:
- send a letter to Members of Congress asking them to make supporting the blood supply a national priority;
- hold a briefing on Tuesday, June 11th at noon EDT on Capitol Hill in Longworth 1539 on the status of the nation’s blood supply and urge action on key priorities;
- meet with key leaders from federal agencies to encourage administrative action to support the blood supply; and
- urge public action through a weeklong Axios Politics and Policy takeover, press releases, letters to Congress, and social media campaigns.
Thank you to members of ABC’s 2024 Corporate Partner Council for sponsoring Blood Advocacy Week. This includes Abbott, Grifols, Terumo BCT, Roche, Cerus, Fresenius Kabi, Healthcare-ID, Macopharma, and Velico. We encourage all those interested to take part. To learn more, visit BloodAdvocacyWeek.org or email bloodadvocacyweek@americasblood.org.