Listen to the Briefing Here: 

Patients Rising Weekly Update

March 13, 2026

Welcome to the first Patients Rising Corporate Partner Briefing, where we will share a weekly overview of what we are publishing, launching, and advancing across our advocacy platform.

This update is designed to give our partners clear visibility into the policy insights, advocate education, storytelling initiatives, and advocacy campaigns we are building each week.

I also want to thank everyone who was able to join me on Thursday for our briefing on the Future of Patients Rising. Unfortunately, I won’t be posting the full recording due to some technical issues with the webinar settings. We were testing a new platform that we will also be using for podcast production, and I didn’t quite have everything configured correctly for a live webinar. That will be corrected going forward.

In the meantime, this briefing will serve as a recap—and then some.

Going forward, I’m also committing a dedicated amount of personal time each week to write these updates. In addition to reporting on what we’re doing, I’ll share some of my own thoughts and observations on grassroots advocacy more broadly and how we—as a community—can get better at it.

For convenience, I’ve also included an audio version of this update at the top of the page.

This Week at Patients Rising

Corporate Partner Login

You will find in the email that provided you the link to this briefing, I also provided instructions for access the Corporate Partner Briefing Room. 

Each Friday morning, you will receive a link to the weekly briefing along with any updates on current initiatives and opportunities to engage. These will all be linked to in the briefing room for an annual look at our accomplishments. 

My goal in streamlining Patients Rising down to one 501c4 organization is to bring as much value to the dollars you spend with us as possible. And that starts with this weekly briefings that include updates and impact. 

Inside the briefing room you will find:

• weekly Patients Rising updates
• newly published policy insights
• active and developing advocacy campaigns
• partnership opportunities
• upcoming initiatives and events 

Please note that login access will expire one month after the end of a current membership term. Jennifer Garzia and I will begin reaching out approximately 90 days prior to membership expiration so we can maintain a steadier renewal cadence for both your planning and ours.

This Week on Our Insights Blog

Below are links to everything published on our Insights Blog last week (March 9-13, 2026):

• A $20,000 Hospital Bill: When Medical Debt Becomes the Breaking Point
• New York Expands the 340B Drug Program — But Will Patients Benefit?
• Patients Rising Urges Governor Spanberger to Veto Virginia SB271
• Patients Rising Statement on GAO Vision and Dental Insurance Report
• GAO Report Highlights Concentration in Vision and Dental Insurance Markets
• Five Reasons the SB271 Substitute Could Hurt Virginia Patients
• Patients Rising Strongly Opposes Substitute Amendment to Virginia SB271

Policy Town Hall Launch

This week we held our first Patients Rising Policy Town Hall, and moving forward these sessions will become a monthly event for our advocacy community.

These Town Halls provide patient advocates with direct education on emerging healthcare policy issues and create opportunities for discussion about how patients can participate effectively in the policy process.

Our regular cadence will now include:

• Monthly Policy Town Halls — second Wednesday evening of each month
• Monthly Lunch & Learn briefings — last Wednesday of each month

These sessions are also included as engagement opportunities within our corporate partnership offerings.

For our first Lunch & Learn this month, we will be a broad discussion on AI in Healthcare. I recently attended a Collaborating for Care Plus event with our corporate member partner Takeda, and I brought some of those insights back to the community. Advocates expressed strong interest in exploring this topic further and this is the beginning of that engagement.

Community Growth & Patient Senate

We are pleased to share that the Patients Rising community has now grown to more than 800 members. We are actively exploring ways to enhance engagement inside the community through gamification and monthly events.  

Our goal for 2026 is to reach or exceed 1,750 members by December 31. We plan to do this through the regular cadence of our virtual events, which we will promote widely. To attend those events, participants must register for our community, allowing us to steadily grow the network. As we grow our corporate membership base we will also incorporate a percentage of membership dollars towards an ongoing digital recruitment campaign. 

As the community expands, our goal is to maintain a consistent rhythm of policy education, storytelling, and advocacy engagement so advocates can better understand the issues shaping healthcare policy.

We have also officially launched the Patient Senate page, which has been extremely well received by our advocates. While the Patient Senate has existed internally for several years, giving it a visible structure and identity has significantly increased engagement.

Our goal is to reach 535 Patient Senators, including:

• 435 District Leads
• 50 State Deputies
• 50 State Leads

In addition, we are presently building 50 individual state pages where our state-level advocacy work will live. These pages will highlight:

• State policy updates and one-pagers
• Patient Senators in each state
• Relevant state organizations and coalitions

Seeking Partnership Support: QALY Ban Campaign

Patients Rising continues advocating for a permanent ban on discriminatory Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY) metrics in healthcare decision-making.

We are currently engaging with both the VA and CMS on this issue.

Because we believe this is an issue that can resonate strongly with patient advocates, we see it as one of the most effective ways to engage grassroots advocacy around broader policy discussions related to international reference pricing and MFN proposals.

In short, if policymakers attempt to introduce QALY-style frameworks into U.S. decision-making through the back door, the strongest case for that argument against MFN is to ban QALY outright.

We would like to help draft and move this legislation forward and see it introduced in the Senate. Given the current policy environment, timing matters, and we believe this initiative has strong potential for patient engagement.

If your company would like to learn more or is interested in supporting this campaign, please reach out.

Seeking Partnership Support: 340B Patient-Driven Bill Initiative

Patients Rising is also exploring the development of a patient-driven 340B policy proposal focused on increasing transparency and accountability within the program.

One concept we are developing would require 340B hospitals to display a public seal of compliance on their websites, similar to nonprofit transparency certifications.

In addition, hospitals would produce an annual 340B Impact Report explaining:

• how 340B revenues are used
• what direct prescription assistance programs exist for patients
• how the program improves care in their communities

We believe this concept could generate strong grassroots support and create a clearer connection between the program and the patients it is intended to serve.

Seeking Partnership Support: 340B Rebate Model Letter Writing Campaign to HRSA 

Patients Rising continues to promote our 340B Rebate Model advocacy campaign, encouraging patients and citizens to submit comments to HRSA during the current comment period.

We believe this is an important opportunity for the public to ask HRSA to ensure that patients directly benefit from the 340B program through the development of the rebate model.

Through this campaign, we are encouraging advocates to highlight real-world experiences from patients who often see little or no benefit from a program intended to support them.

Please feel free to share this initiative with your advocacy networks.

We are also exploring ways to expand this effort through more robust grassroots digital engagement, and we welcome partners interested in supporting this work.

Advocacy Campaign Update: Medicare Drug Price Negotiation 

Patients Rising continues to promote our Medicare Drug Price Negotiation advocacy campaign, which remains open through Wednesday, March 18.

Following the close of the comment period, we will begin outreach to advocates who registered for assistance and provide guidance for those who would like help preparing submissions.

This was our second year activating advocates around this issue. While these processes are complicated, we saw encouraging engagement:

• more than 125 advocates registered
• approximately 80 participated live
• over 150 program streams

One key takeaway: despite the number of webinars and educational opportunities across the advocacy space, many patients remain hesitant to engage.

Issues like QALY, 340B, ICER, or international pricing frameworks take time to fully permeate grassroots advocacy communities. Continued education and sustained engagement will be necessary to build stronger participation over time.

Advocacy Campaign: Medical Bankruptcy in America

Our Medical Bankruptcy in America storytelling initiative continues to expand as we document how healthcare costs and hospital billing practices affect patients across the country.

For those who supported the development of the bankruptcy dashboards, I will soon be hosting a briefing with Naomi Lopez of Nexus Policy Consulting to review the work produced.

While the original vision for a fully integrated national data dashboard proved more complex than expected, Naomi and her team are producing 50 state-level one-pagers that will support our broader Patients Right to Know campaign. There is also a dashboard to share, but it is not as story-driven as I had envisioned it to be. 

In parallel, I am working directly with file-level bankruptcy data from seven states to build the interactive map we envisioned within the resources currently available.

We are actively exploring opportunities to expand the project into additional states, using district-level data to better connect stories to policymakers. If you have not already supported this campaign, and are interested in its expansion, please reach out to me. 

Rescheduling State of the Patient Summit & Rise Awards

We are currently working with Senator Scott’s office to secure a Capitol Hill room for the State of the Patient Summit and Rise Awards, which we are planning for September 2026.

Our vision is not a traditional gala-style event, but rather a policy-focused summit paired with an awards reception recognizing advocates, legislators, and leaders advancing patient-centered healthcare.

We hope to reopen sponsorship opportunities once a date and program are finalized, hopefully by the end of April.