Honor the Gift

Activating the community to extend Medicare coverage for kidney treatment

The Challenge

CareDx, a publicly-traded transplant diagnostics and patient management provider, saw that the transplant community needed a fresh policy champion to help improve the lives of those living with kidney transplants. They approached CURA Strategies in the fall of 2018 to develop a thought leadership campaign that would improve the lives of people living with transplants and build brand awareness and loyalty.

The Solution

9,568 letters to Congress and 8,009 pledges to honor the gift of kidney donation later, we succeeded.

Within three months, we used our Issue Prioritization Rubric to identify our issue and launched Honor the Gift, a national patient-centered campaign created and managed by CURA Strategies and supported by a coalition of kidney and transplant organizations. The goal of the campaign and coalition was to extend Medicare coverage of critical immunosuppressive medications for kidney transplant recipients, which, at the time, ended three years after someone received a transplanted kidney. For nearly two decades, advocates tried and failed to pass legislation that would address this issue.

9,568 letters to Congress and 8,009 pledges to honor the gift of kidney donation later, we succeeded. The Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act (Immuno Bill) was signed into law on December 27, 2020 and will go into effect on January 1, 2023.

To help CareDx achieve these goals, we leveraged an issue-based campaign to position the company as a leading advocate in the transplant community through the following strategies:

Uniquely brand the efforts
Humanize the issue and bring to life the patient perspective through storytelling
Engage and recruit third parties to validate and support the campaign
Build and activate a community of advocates
Serve as the conduit to the community for influencers and media

CareDX Campaign Video

The Results

130+

cosponsors recruited between the House and Senate

100

advocates cultivated with our digital advocacy tool

200

clinicians support secured in support of the Immuno Bill

organizations support the initiative, including the National Kidney Foundation, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation and Donate Life America

Secured a number of national earned media placements, including in Kaiser Health News, NPR and STAT News

Relying largely on organic content, the campaign’s social media platforms have reached over 1 million people across the country

Testimonials

The team at CURA Strategies has been a great extension of CareDx in Washington, D.C., and helping to elevate the patient voice to a long-standing issue in transplantation. The CURA team executed a multi-stakeholder campaign that resulted in the passage of legislation that will impact kidney transplant patients for generations. While the results were exhilarating, the CURA team helped CareDx foster deeper relations in the kidney and transplant ecosystem and those relationships will last a lifetime.

Peter Maag

Former CEO and Chairman of the Board, CareDx

CURA Strategies was the perfect partner to aid us in sharing the story of an unmet need in healthcare and allowed us to drive real change for kidney transplant patients across the US. The team’s dedication and expertise in healthcare, policy, and communications made for a seamless campaign, allowing for continuous and engaged advocacy. Their multi-channel approach and demonstrated understanding of the healthcare and policy landscape while tying in a strong communications approach and working cooperatively with other partners and firms led to an effective campaign. The success of passing a decades long legislation is due in part to CURA Strategies and their CURAgeous team.

Jenny Sato

Senior Marketing Manager, CareDx