NCL CEO Sally Greenberg spoke at this year’s We Work For Health Summit. As part of panel focusing on PBMs, Sally shared her knowledge of how patient health suffers as PBMs are involved in practices such as the need for prior authorizations and step therapy.
Sally Greenberg attended the Antitrust Seminar at Utah School of Law in Salt Lake City.
In honor of National Credit Education Month, NCL is partnering with FICO.
To mark National Women’s History Month NCL honors five women who continue to dedicate their career advocating and fighting for consumers.
NCL Vice President John Breyault co-hosted an evening reception in honor of National Consumer Protection Week with Project GOAL, Consumer Action, Safe Kids Worldwide, and Amazon. Working across government, industry, and consumer advocacy, we celebrated the importance of protecting consumers.
Sally will be moderating a virtual panel at a March conference focused on HIPAA, the law that protects privacy of our health information. The summit will focus on consumer protection, anti-trust enforcement, and worker rights.
NCL joined with Consumer Federation of America and Sports Fans Coalition to launch the Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights. The goal of the initiative is to give policymakers a clear set of principles for crafting pro-consumer and pro-competition live event ticketing reform legislation.
The Child labor Coalition is cohosting the event with Accountability Research Center, Peacejam, and Satyarthi. Len Morris’s short film, “Butterfly, Butterfly,” explores the plight of child laborers in the United States and abroad and is an urgent call-to-action for policymakers.
NCL Vice President John Breyault testified before the Maryland House of Delegates in support of HB 795, a bill that would strengthen consumer protections against unfair and deceptive live event ticketing practices.
Sally will speak at the 25th International Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association Annual in Orlando, FL.
Sally and Reid Maki attended the Fight Like Hell: The Testimony of Mother Jones movie in The Cinema at Eaton DC.
Reid Maki attended the Human Trafficking Legal Center and co-hosted a panel discussion on child forced labor in the United States. The panel discussed policy recommendations to prevent these crimes and to hold perpetrators accountable.
Sally and Robin Strongin, NCL’s Senior Director of Health Policy, will attend a conference on Protecting Treatment Choice: Perspectives from Patients, Providers, and Advocates.
Reid Maki, NCL’s Director of Child Labor Advocacy attended the Free the Slaves celebration. Last month, the Alliance 8.7 unanimously adopted an accountability framework for Pathfinder countries committed to achieving Target 8.7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
John will be speaking on a panel about data breach notifications organized as part of the Identity Theft Resource Center and Better Identity Coalition’s Identity, Authentication, and the Road Ahead” conference.
Sally attended the Kelley Drye’s Government Relations & Public Policy Practice for the 18th annual Congressional Forum – A Look at the Legislative Agenda for 2023. This event provides clients and friends an opportunity to learn first-hand from federal legislators and leading policy makers about topics that will be relevant in the 118th Congress
Sally will participate in the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) Action Patient Voices for Telehealth Coalition Meeting that will provide perspectives on federal and state policies related to virtual care and discuss the activities to support the advancement of telehealth.
Sally receives a certificate of appreciation for NCL’s work on the consumer and worker protections subcommittee of the transition team for DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb.
VP of Fraud Policy & Telecommunications John Breyault will be one of the speakers at a panel discussion about the prevalence of fake online reviews, their impact on companies and consumers alike, and the steps policymakers can take to stop their spread.
Sally will join TikTok CEO Shou Chew for an update on Project Texas, the company’s plan to enhance efforts to protect data and secure platform integrity. The Flyer is in the link below.
Impact 100 DC is an all-volunteer women’s philanthropic community dedicated to improving lives in the Greater Washington, DC area by collectively funding transformational grants to local nonprofit organizations.
In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, Sally participated in the MLK parade in DC, where she ran into Chairman of the DC Council Phil Mendelson. Check out her photos in the link below.
Sally and the NCL team joined our friends from the Consumer Federation of America to celebrate CFA’s 50 years of work on behalf of consumer protection and safety and to pay tribute to some of the leading consumer advocates working to keep Americans safe, healthy, and free from predatory practices.
Sally is part of the transition team for incoming DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office and the team is delivering a document with recommendations for priorities for the AG for his work on consumer protection, antitrust investigations, and worker rights and protections.
NCL is leading the charge for a comprehensive federal privacy statute. In her op-ed for The Hill publication, Sally explains why such protections are important and winnable.
John is one of the speakers at this November conference in Orlando.
Sally and John Breyault, NCL’s Vice President of Fraud Policy & Telecommunications, attended a Capitol Hill briefing to provide background information and an outline for congressional action to make the live ticketing marketplace more fair and transparent. John also served as a panelist.
Sally joined consumer colleagues and companies that work with consumers to advance good policies at a reception to celebrate the 51st anniversary of Consumer Action. At the event, Senator Ed Markey joined consumer advocates in accepting an award for his decades of outstanding leadership in both the House and Senate.
Sally joined a panel of international experts on the transformation of the labor market in Uzbekistan; a labor market that once forced children to leave school to work picking in cotton fields to one that now boasts a more fair, transparent, and worker-friendly cotton sector. Ten years ago NCL and our Child Labor Coalition were part of a protest at the Uzbekistan embassy calling for an end to that country’s treatment of children.
The work of the National Consumers League is making a difference in people’s lives across the country. Meet some of the consumers touched by our programs.
Read about NCL’s impact
Paige, 55, a Nashville wife and mother of two, answered an employment ad for secret shoppers. Before sending payment to the scammers, she reached out to NCL.
Read about NCL’s impact
A grease fire flared up in Decklan’s kitchen. As his family scrambled and panicked, fearing that the whole house might erupt in flames, Decklan remained calm. He hurried over to the pantry, grabbed some baking soda, and dumped it on the fire quickly extinguishing the blaze.
Read about NCL’s impact
Cincinnati resident Charles, 45, lost his computer business — and health insurance— during a time of economic downturn. A diabetic, Charles was now unable to afford his medication. He stopped taking it which made him seriously ill and put his life at risk.
Read about NCL’s impact
Jeremy is a fast-food worker who has been employed at a number of Chipotle restaurants in New York City. When he was just 20 years old, he took part in an NCL research project that revealed that management practices within the fast food chain were putting workers—and food safety for customers—at risk.
Read about NCL’s impact
By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director
While the COVID-19 pandemic has led to hardship for all Americans, it is clear that people of color have been disproportionately burdened. Across the health care continuum, addressing this disparity has become part of the broader conversation about the history of systemic racism and the underlying social determinants of health that negatively affect the mental, physical, and economic health of individuals and entire communities.
The pandemic has underscored persistent health disparities, and there is growing recognition that representation in research and clinical trials can have a profound impact on health outcomes. A lack of representation from racially and ethnically diverse groups in research and clinical trials have typically led to gaps in data, missing the opportunity to assess the full impact of various treatments and drugs across a range of populations. The collection and use of real-world research and data to inform the potential use, risks, and benefits of medical products and treatments can ultimately lead to better health outcomes, particularly for those who have been underrepresented in the past.
Existing efforts to improve inclusion
Efforts to expand diversity and representation in medical research are underway in Congress. Policymakers are encouraging the incorporation of Real World Evidence (RWE) in drug development through the recent Cures 2.0 draft legislation released by Reps. Diana Degette (D-CO-1) and Fred Upton (D-MI-6). While the status quo limits us from effectively reaching underserved populations, the proposed legislation would allow studies that include RWE for some drugs after they have been approved. At the heart of this issue is a growing appreciation that the same therapy can affect different populations in different ways, which is why Cures 2.0 supports collecting data that more accurately reflects the unique experiences and needs of patients across diverse populations.
Recognizing the potential for RWE in maternal health
The lack of representative research in the field of maternal health is undeniable, and its implications are staggering. The dismal state of maternal care in the United States reflects how our health care system has failed women of color, including by not adequately studying treatment options to prevent maternal morbidity and mortality. The need for RWE is clear when you consider the persistent disparities in health outcomes that plague minority communities.
Preterm birth and its disproportionate impact on women of color is a stark illustration of the need to make progress on representative research in maternal health. Preterm birth is the second-largest contributor to infant death in America today. Despite the tremendous physical, emotional, and financial toll that preterm birth continues to take on our country — disproportionately so on women and families of color — not enough therapeutic tools currently exist to prevent it.
Today, “17P,” the only FDA-approved treatment to help reduce the likelihood of spontaneous, recurrent preterm birth in the United States is at-risk of being withdrawn from the market in all its forms, including the branded product and five generic versions. Unfortunately there is conflicting evidence from two different clinical trials, one representative of a diverse U.S. population and another studied in a largely white population in Europe. It’s not a straightforward comparison. If 17P is withdrawn, the women most affected by preterm birth, predominantly women of color, would be left without an FDA-approved treatment option.
The FDA is considering the path forward, including additional data collection through leveraging RWE from past patient use. The success of the first (approval) trial for 17P in the impacted communities signals the importance of RWE. Continued access to 17P is, at its core, a matter of health equity. Black women must not yet again be left vulnerable to a system that historically has overlooked them.