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Patients Rising Weekly Update

March 27, 2026

Welcome to this week’s Patients Rising Corporate Partner Briefing. As always, our goal is to provide a clear and concise look at what we advanced this week—and where we’re headed next.

Thank you to those who have joined the Corporate Partner Briefing Room. If you need your invitation resent, just let me know.

A quick update on the State of the Patient Summit and Rise Awards: we are continuing to coordinate with Senator Scott’s office to secure a Senate-side venue for September. These rooms open on a rolling basis about three months out, so we are actively working to lock in the right space. We will share details as soon as we have confirmation.

This Week at Patients Rising

This week marked a major expansion of our Medical Bankruptcy in America work, with a deep focus on Virginia. We published a series of new analyses and patient stories examining how medical debt—often tied to 340B hospitals—is contributing to financial collapse for patients across the state.    

Highlights Include:                                                                                                

Medical Bankruptcy In America: Virginia
Medical Bankruptcy in Virginia: What 185 Filings Reveal
Hospitals in Virginia Bankruptcy Cases
$277,103 Medical Debt in Virginia Bankruptcy | Sentara Case
$311,888 Medical Debt in Virginia Bankruptcy | Sentara Case
$370,000+ Medical Debt in Virginia Bankruptcy | Mary Washington Case
$190,000 Medical Debt After Cancer Diagnosis | Virginia Bankruptcy Case
Medical Debt in Collections | UVA Health 340B Bankruptcy Case Virginia
$90,970 Medical Debt VCU Health 340B Bankruptcy Virginia
$100K+ Medical Debt Across 340B Hospitals | Virginia Bankruptcy Case

We also published new content on Minnesota’s 340B-related bills (HF 3609 / SF 2959) and ongoing advocacy related to New York’s proposed 340B expansion.

View All Insights → [Insights LINK}

Policy & Advocacy Activity

Following last week’s close of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation sign-up period, we have now identified and begun working with patients who have been selected—or are awaiting confirmation—to engage directly with CMS.

Our focus moving forward is to:

• Support these patients in preparing for participation
• Track their experience throughout the process
• Elevate patient perspectives through our content platforms

This represents an important next phase: from recruitment to real-world engagement and accountability.

Policy Priorities

We continue advancing two core policy efforts:

• 340B transparency and patient benefit reform
• Federal ban on discriminatory QALY metrics

Both efforts are increasingly grounded in real patient experience—particularly as we connect financial harm, access challenges, and policy design.

Community & Advocate Development

Our community continues to grow, now exceeding 800 members.

This week, we focused on:

• Bringing new advocates into LEAD education pathways
• Strengthening participation in Town Halls and Lunch & Learns
• Building out state-level infrastructure and Patient Senate development

We are beginning to see a stronger system emerge—where education leads to engagement, and engagement leads to action.

Campaign Progress & Opportunities

340B Rebate Model (HRSA Comments)
With the comment period still active until April 20th, we are continuing outreach to encourage patient participation and letter submissions. There is opportunity to expand the comment engagement for this into a broader digital advocacy effort. We are working on a grassroots and grasstops approach, so any level of support towards digital engagement for letters would be helpful. Please reach out if you are interested.

QALY Ban Initiative
We are continuing early-stage conversations around federal legislation and evaluating pathways for introduction. This remains a strong opportunity for meaningful grassroots engagement. We have moved this action to our homepage in place of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation program.

340B Patient Transparency Proposal
Concept development continues, with a focus on clearly demonstrating how the program is — or is not — benefiting patients at the point of care. We think a patient-driven bill is a strong play here for reform, even as an add on to a more substantive reform effort. 

If your company is interested in engaging in any of these efforts, we welcome the conversation.

Medical Bankruptcy in America

This work continues to accelerate and is becoming a central pillar of our broader accountability efforts.

Current focus areas include:

• Expanding state-level analysis beyond Virginia
• Building out a district-level storytelling map
• Developing supporting one-pagers and policy framing

We see this initiative as a long-term driver of transparency, narrative change, and policy momentum.

A project update for supporters of this work is scheduled for April 15.

Looking Ahead

In the coming weeks, we will focus on:

• Expanding patient story collection and publication
• Continuing growth of LEAD education and community engagement
• Advancing policy briefings and digital advocacy efforts

We are also preparing for the launch of the State of the Patient podcast with Terry Wilcox on April 21.

Thank you for your continued partnership and support.

If you would like to discuss any of these initiatives or explore ways to engage, I would welcome the conversation.

Yours in Advocacy,

Terry Wilcox
Co-Founder & Chief Mission Officer
Patients Rising