America’s Blood Centers, AABB, and the American Red Cross submitted joint comments to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) regarding the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems proposed rule for calendar year 2022. The comments focus on the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes P9099 (Blood component or…
Read MorePreparedness and Response Policies: Improving the Resiliency of the Nation’s Blood Supply America’s Blood Centers joined AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks) and the American Red Cross in expressing to Congress their commitment to improving the nation’s preparedness and response capabilities. Collectively, our organizations represent the nation’s blood collection establishments, transfusion…
Read MoreAmerica’s Blood Centers (ABC) welcomes the Honorable Dawn O’Connell, JD to the role of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). ABC looks forward to working with the ASPR to ensure broad awareness of the essential role of the blood supply in the health care system as well as the continuous need for blood donors…
Read MoreIn April of 2020 FDA issued three guidance documents which modified recommendations for blood collections relating to HIV, Malaria and Alternative Procedures for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency. In a letter to the FDA, ABC submitted comments in support of making the three blood guidances permanent – beyond the duration of the…
Read MoreOn behalf of America’s Blood Centers (ABC) and our member blood centers, we applaud your efforts to maintain a safe and robust blood supply by ensuring that testing requirements and donor deferrals are evidence-based. The determination that Zika virus (ZIKV) is no longer a relevant transfusion-transmitted infection (RTTI) recognizes the evolving knowledge surrounding the virus,…
Read MoreRe: Document 0990-0313 Agency Information Collection Request: National Blood Collection& Utilization Survey (NBCUS) The biennial NBCUS is the only source of comprehensive data on blood collection and usage available for both public and private stakeholders, to support benchmarking and surveillance, ongoing research, regulatory needs, disaster planning, and national security concerns. In comments submitted this week…
Read MoreAmerica’s Blood Centers (ABC) signed on to a Constituency Group letter on April 16th to members of Congress in support of funding for the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National, Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (NHLBI). The letter is cosigned by 58 other organizations.
Read MoreAABB, America’s Blood Centers, and the American Red Cross submitted comments in response to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Most Favored Nation (MFN) Model interim final rule with comment (IFC). Our organizations strongly oppose the interim final rule implementing the MFN model because it dramatically changes Medicare payment policies without providing affected stakeholders…
Read MoreAmerica’s Blood Centers, AABB, and the American Red Cross issued a joint statement for National Blood Donor Month thanking those individuals who selflessly donate blood, platelets, and convalescent plasma and encouraging eligible individuals to schedule an appointment to donate.
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Letter & Comments to OASH: Document 0990-0313-30D Agency Information Collection Request: National Blood Collection & Utilization Survey (NBCUS)
Re: Document 0990-0313 Agency Information Collection Request: National Blood Collection& Utilization Survey (NBCUS) Thank you very much to the OASH and CDC staff working on the NBCUS for providing responses to ABC’s comments, dated May 24, 2021, on the draft 2021 NBCUS. We reviewed the responses received August 26, 2021 and provided our additional comments…
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