Members of The Angry Moms in Arizona have collaborated with Arizona State Senator Lauren Kuby to create a legislative bill increasing services and support for clozapine patients.
This is the first legislation of its kind, requiring insurers to appropriately reimburse providers who use clozapine, address administrative burdens, and provide adequate support measures for individuals who need clozapine.
States have statutes relating to medications like insulin, glucose monitors, epinephrine, dialysis, and naloxone. Legislation surrounding access to clozapine is long overdue. Our hope is that this proposed bill will be heard by the Arizona legislature and that other states will make similar efforts.
Here is a link to Arizona’s SB1720:
Arizona Senate Bill SB1720 proposes insurers to provide:
• Clozapine-specific training for psychiatric providers, with increased compensation for administrative costs and support for managing clozapine side effects.
• Access to available technologies like finger-stick ANC devices, salivary gland treatments, and genetic testing for neutropenia-associated genes.
• Increased community support, such as in-home assistance for blood tests, medication delivery and assistance.
• Requirements for inpatient and outpatient psychiatric pharmacies to stock clozapine, with authorization for emergency doses outside the standard refill schedule.
• Extending of these provisions to pediatric and elderly populations, individuals with developmental disabilities and for clozapine patients in incarcerated settings.
Expected benefits of this bill in Arizona:
• Reduced hospitalizations, treatment costs, patient mortality, and violence.
• $100M annual savings in hospitalization costs when fully implemented [1]
• Free up the equivalent of 200 psychiatric beds in Arizona.
• At least 10 SMI-related suicides in Arizona would be prevented each year [2]
Regardless of whether all or part of this bill becomes Arizona state law, we hope that our legislative advocacy will help inform healthcare policy changes for serious psychiatric conditions.
Those of us within The Angry Moms who monitor our website inbox and social media groups frequently receive heartbreaking stories from mothers whose children have died, and no one offered them clozapine.
We must do better.
The Angry Moms
[1] Gören Jessica L, et al. "The Business Case for Expanded Clozapine Utilization." Psychiatric Services (Washington, D.C.) vol. 67,11 (2016): 1197-1205.
[2] Meltzer Herbert Y, et al. "Clozapine treatment for suicidality in schizophrenia: International Suicide Prevention Trial (InterSePT)." Archives of general psychiatry vol. 60,1 (2003): 82–91.
My dear friends - we must consider filing a class action lawsuit against the FDA if they do not comply with their own board's recommendation to eliminate clozapine REMS egregious mandates. I have contacted an attorney known as the "FDA Dragonslayer" because he has sued the FDA numerous times and has won. I am willing to pay my fair share to hire this attorney to sue the FDA to stop their sick control of not dispensing clozapine without blood testing. My son and I have been doing this for over 13 years! I have no personal life because of the FDA! I sent an appeal letter to the attorney asking him to help us clozapine patient caregivers in an…
Every state needs to follow suit after this passes in Arizona!
I grieve the loss of my son although he is still with me because for years no one mentioned clozapine to me. I will never have those years back. He will never have those years back. The barriers to receiving clozapine need to be removed.
Great work Angry Moms!
This is a great step forward. And yet it is so sad and reflects poorly on our Healthcare system that clinically effective treatment needs to be legislated!