Last year, we wrote regarding a recommendation by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to offer patients PFAS blood testing for patients suspected to have had high levels of PFAS exposure. Now, several politicians are taking the NAS recommendations one step further by introducing legislation (H.R. 4917) to require that Medicare cover the costs of PFAS blood testing for senior citizens. More specifically, the bill calls for the Social Security Act to be amended to allow for the testing to be a covered cost. The legislation has been referred to the Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means committees for consideration, where it currently sits for discussion.

The legislation, if passed, and in combination with the NAS report from 2022, will likely have litigation impacts in the years to come. More specifically, both measures would support plaintiffs’ arguments in litigation that Courts should order defendants to pay for costly medical monitoring programs related to PFAS in affected citizens. Further, if millions of citizens begin having their blood tested for PFAS, the results could be a resource for plaintiffs’ bar for products liability litigation related to PFAS, provided that associated exposure pathway questions are sufficient to make correlations between certain products, PFAS presence in the blood, and health impacts. While several years away from reality, this type of mass testing in conjunction with exposure pathway detailed questioning is already playing out nationally as a means for plaintiffs’ bar to jump ahead of EPA and scientific community initiatives to draw dose response correlations between PFAS, consumer goods, and health impacts.

CMBG3 Law is following judicial, legislative, administrative, and scientific developments relating to PFAS. We assist companies with all of their PFAS compliance, risk prediction, and litigation needs. More information about the services we can provide, including risk assessments, to ensure your business is ready for any intersection with these substances can be found on our PFAS Litigation page.

Our attorneys have been at the forefront of PFAS issues, including giving presentations as to the future waves of litigation stemming from PFAS issues. For more information, please contact any of our PFAS – Toxic Torts Team: John Gardella.