The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) announced new strategies to enhance the standard quality of care in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In a white paper published by Sofia et al in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the AGA wrote that collaboration between health-care practitioners, insurance providers, pharmaceutical companies, and policymakers is critical to overcoming the current barriers to high-quality care—including limited and cost-prohibitive access to effective therapies through prior authorization and step therapy, low access to IBD specialists, forced nonmedical switching, coverage gaps in disease monitoring and multidisciplinary care, and intersecting identities leading to inequalities. The AGA then highlighted a 12-point plan to advance care for patients with IBD. Among the points were:

• Reflect the lived experiences and insights of patients and specialists in the data and research of IBD
• Tailor IBD therapy to suit the individual needs of each patient
• Move beyond insurance-related barriers such as insurer-mandated step therapy and fail first policies, limited insurance coverage for disease and drug monitoring, lack of expert reviews for all providers when mandated by insurance companies, and unpublished denial and appeals data from payors
• Offer holistic, patient-centered multidisciplinary care covered by insurance
• Support the continuation and creation of patient education programs to boost awareness and health literacy
• Engage pharmaceutical partners in developing equitable programs to dismantle prohibitive drug costs.