Foundation News

Christy DeSantis, an accomplished marketing executive, begins her tenure today as the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. Tasked with steering the Foundation’s marketing and communications strategies, DeSantis joins the senior leadership team, playing a crucial role in shaping impactful initiatives across the organization.

[NEW YORK, October 17, 2023] The U.S.

The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization focused on research and patient support for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), is joining forces with the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (Cost Plus Drugs) to increase awareness of opportunities for accessing some reduced-price essential IBD medications.  

Alan Moss, MD, a renowned clinician-scientist, begins his tenure today as the Chief Scientific Officer at the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. His prior roles include serving as the Director of the Crohn’s & Colitis Program at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Professor of Medicine at Boston University (BU). In his clinical practice, Dr. Moss has cared for IBD patients from underserved, immigrant, and unhoused populations.

The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) titled “Improving Health Outcomes for Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.” The grant will support a comprehensive five-year project in collaboration with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) aimed at identifying and addressing barriers to medical diagnosis and care of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, emphasizing the experience and impact on African American adults and adolescents.

UnitedHealthcare (UHC) has delayed implementing a new policy that would have required prior authorization for most physician-prescribed endoscopy and colonoscopy procedures, which was slated to begin June 1. This decision comes after UHC faced significant backlash from the GI community, and a rally was led by the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation alongside IBD healthcare professionals and patients outside UHC’s Minnesota headquarters on May 31. The Foundation was invited to meet with UHC to discuss the policy after the rally.

Using collective data made available by IBD Plexus, researchers’ findings advance the possibility of microbiome-based personalized medicine for IBD treatment.

Legislation will give patients and their doctors a process to seek exception to Step Therapy requirements that may delay necessary care

The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation advocates for reform in the Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) industry due to the negative impact it has on patients' access to medicine.