Advocacy Agenda

AABB is committed to advocating for policies that support two primary objectives: (1) ensuring that patients and health care providers have access to safe blood, transfusion medicine and biotherapies; and (2) enhancing patient and donor care and safety in transfusion medicine and biotherapies.

The 2025 Advocacy Agenda focuses on:

• Championing a resilient blood supply and a sustainable blood system that meets patients' needs.
• Increasing patients' access to safe and effective biotherapies.
• Protecting and improving coverage and reimbursement policies for blood, transfusion medicine and biotherapies.
• Enhancing patient and donor care and safety.
• Supporting research that is critical to driving innovation and advancements in transfusion medicine and biotherapies.

Championing a Resilient Blood Supply and a Sustainable Blood System

• Recognize blood transfusions as essential, life-saving treatments.
  • Support a sustainable blood system as a critical part of the health care system.
  • Recognize blood collectors, the blood supply chain and transfusion medicine services as critical parts of the emergency preparedness and response infrastructure.
  • Ensure that blood is available for patients with chronic health conditions, such as sickle cell disease, blood disorders and cancer, in emergencies for resuscitation, trauma, maternal hemorrhage and other critical treatments.
  • Ensure that the blood supply is able to support the transfusion needs of patients receiving biotherapies and solid organ transplantation.
  • Improve access to matched and universal blood components to meet all patient needs.
  • Support patients' access to blood transfusions in all safe settings of care.
• Support blood donor engagement initiatives.
  • Promote regular blood donation to ensure a resilient blood supply and to support preparedness and response capabilities during disasters and emergencies.
  • Support funding for local efforts to raise awareness about the importance of blood donation.
  • Oppose restrictions that unnecessarily reduce the number of eligible blood donors.
  • Encouraging research into donor motivation to enhance recruitment and retention strategies.
• Address laboratory workforce shortages.
  • Advance a qualified laboratory workforce.
  • Ensure there is an adequate pipeline of laboratory professionals to meet future demands.
• Support safe blood availability throughout the world.
  • Promote policies that address needs in "blood deserts."

Increasing Patients' Access to Safe and Effective Biotherapies.

• Advance a sustainable supply of cellular starting materials critical for innovative treatments.
• Support the safety and well-being of donors providing cellular starting materials.
• Support patient access to safe and effective biotherapies and cellular therapies.
• Support modernizing regulatory frameworks that accelerate the development and reduce the costs of point-of-care biotherapies, such as cell and gene therapies.
• Promote policies that reduce burdens on patients and caregivers by facilitating access to collections for biotherapies in hospitals, blood centers, community-based clinics and all safe settings of care.

Protecting and Improving Coverage and Reimbursement Policies for Blood, Transfusion Medicine, and Biotherapies

• Improve coverage and reimbursement for patients receiving blood transfusions in hospitals.
• Reduce barriers to patients' access to pre-hospital blood transfusions, such as blood transfusions provided in ambulances.
• Increase patients' access to safe blood transfusions furnished in post-acute care settings, such as for patients receiving services under the Medicare hospice benefit, in skilled nursing facilities or from home care providers.
• Improve reimbursement policies for laboratory testing services.
• Support access to collections for biotherapies in all safe settings of care.

Enhancing Patient and Donor Care and Safety

• Promote enhanced patient and donor care and safety by supporting innovation and the appropriate regulation and timely introduction of new products and safety technologies for transfusion medicine and biotherapies.
• Encourage the revision of regulations and guidances that: (1) are duplicative, outdated, unnecessary or overly burdensome; (2) unnecessarily restrict access to products and technologies; and (3) stifle innovation.
• Oppose unnecessary regulatory burdens, including FDA's onerous final rule regulating laboratory developed tests as medical devices, which will slow innovation and decrease the ability of patients to get appropriate laboratory testing.
• Advance standards and accreditation worldwide.
• Support the use of evidence-based policymaking, which includes but is not limited to risk assessment.
• Support patient blood management as an evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach to improving patient outcomes, potentially safeguarding the nation's blood supply and reducing health care costs.

Supporting Research that is Critical to Driving Innovation and Advancements in Transfusion Medicine and Biotherapies

• Support funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies that provide critical resources needed to advance research related to blood, transfusion medicine and biotherapies.
• Support biovigilance as well as research related to patient and donor care and safety.
• Encourage research related to blood availability and the collection, analysis and public reporting of data related to the blood system.