Important........ please do this!

Dear FAIR HCV members and Friends, please note the urgent request below from Dr. St. John, Medical Director of the Caring Ambassadors Program. I am joining with her in respectfully requesting that you submit this form immediately to insure proper input to the Social Security Administration (SSA) about their proposed revision of the medical evaluation criteria for chronic liver diseases, including HCV.

Richard Darling, DDS
President and CEO
The FAIR Foundation

FROM Dr. St. John:

Time is running out for getting comments in to the Social Security Administration (SSA) about their proposed revision of the medical evaluation criteria for chronic liver disease. The deadline for comments is this Friday, January 7th. To date only 17 comments have been submitted online - this is FAR short of what i! t will take to get SSA to make additional changes to the proposed revisions. The proposed revisions are potentially devastating and would leave only those whose death is immediately imminent eligible for assistance from SSA.

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Cut and paste the following paragraphs, under your own name:

Regarding the proposed revision of the medical evaluation criteria for chronic liver disease, I believe the proposed revisions are too narrow and exclude some of the most common manifestations of disability caused by chronic liver disease. I have read the comments and suggestions submitted by the Hepatitis ! C Caring Ambassadors Program, and agree with the content of the commen ts. Specifically, I believe that:

1. chronic hepatitis C needs to be directly addressed in the medical evaluation criteria

2. evaluation criteria must not be based solely on histologic findings on liver biopsy, but reflect functional and metabolic factors as well

3. the medical evaluation criteria must be expanded to more accurately reflect the pathophysiology of chronic liver disease

4. uninsured and underinsured applicants who are eligible for curative-intent therapy should be provided an option for treatment to attempt to prevent life long disability

I urge SSA to make additional revisions to the proposed medical evaluation criteria for chronic liver disease according to the recommendations and suggestions noted above.

Sincerely,
Your name and address, etc. here

Dr. St. John also requested that you forward this
to your friends, associates, etc. involved with HCV.