Congressional PAD Caucus

What is PAD?

Peripheral artery disease (PAD), involves atherosclerosis, or the build-up of plaque inside the arteries of a patient’s lower extremities (i.e. legs and feet) and is a chronic, life-threatening condition. PAD is a risk for more than 30 million Americans living with diabetes and 84.1 million living with prediabetes. If left untreated, PAD can lead to critical limb ischemia (CLI) and amputation. Today, nearly 20 million Americans have PAD and an estimated 200,000 of them – disproportionately from minorities communities – suffer avoidable amputations every year. Nationally, the amputation rate among black Medicare beneficiaries is nearly three times higher than the rate among other beneficiaries.

Mission

The Congressional PAD Caucus was formed in 2019 to educate Congress and communities about PAD while supporting legislative activities to improve PAD research, education, and treatment, with the goal of preventing non-traumatic amputations due to PAD and other related diseases.

Policy Initiatives

To support our goal of preventing amputations, the PAD Caucus has identified key priorities for the 116th Congress, including the following:

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force should review screening for PAD for at-risk patients;

The Administration should form an intragovernmental work group to implement a comprehensive amputation prevention program for PAD patients in Medicare, the IHS and other federal programs based on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Preventing Amputations in Veterans Everywhere (PAVE) program;

Medicare should incent multidisciplinary review of PAD patients in Medicare; and

Medicare should disallow non-traumatic amputations without arterial testing.

PAD Resources

What is PAD
Source: Mayo Clinic

Prevalence and Incidence of Peripheral Artery Disease
Source: The Sage Group

The Burden and Economic Cost of Peripheral Artery Disease
Source: The Sage Group

Racial Disparities in Care for Peripheral Artery Disease
Source: The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care

PAD Caucus Members

Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. (D-NJ-10), Co-Chair

Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL-12), Co-Chair

If you are interested in joining the PAD Caucus, please contact Sam Morgante at Sam.Morgante@mail.house.gov.