Independent Voices — Patient Advocate
Jessica Baladad
Founder, Feel For Your Life · Nashville, TN · 200,000-member patient community
Breast cancer survivor · National Breast Cancer Foundation Community Ambassador & Leadership Award recipient · Capitol Hill advocate on PBM reform, step therapy, and prior authorization
Section I · The Origin
Diagnosed at 33. The Self-Exam That Changed Everything.
Jessica Baladad found a cancerous lump in her breast in the shower during a self-exam at 33 years old — two days after a routine well-woman visit where her doctor found nothing. She had been performing monthly self-exams since 18, when a benign tumor required a lumpectomy her freshman year of college. That habit, maintained for 15 years, is why she caught it.
During chemotherapy, she started asking her friends if they did self-exams. The answer was almost universally no. What began as a social media project to change that eventually became the Feel For Your Life app — a platform that educates women on breast health, documents self-exam history for insurance appeals, and elevates patient voices in healthcare policy conversations.
Along the way, she watched insurance companies deny supplemental screenings for women with dense breast tissue. She watched women under 40 fight for care their insurers weren't required to cover. She watched step therapy delay prescribed cancer treatments. She didn't just document it — she started working to change it.
Section II · Tennessee
The FAIR Rx Act — On the Ground, Not the Sidelines
When Tennessee's FAIR Rx Act (HB1959/SB2040) — prohibiting PBMs from owning or operating pharmacies in the state — was moving through the legislature, Jessica Baladad was running the grassroots activation campaign for it. Through Feel For Your Life, she equipped advocates to contact lawmakers directly, organized letter-writing, coordinated testimony at legislative hearings, and mobilized her community around the patient stakes of PBM vertical integration.
CVS spent over $7 million and deployed more than 60 lobbyists to kill the bill. It passed anyway. Governor Bill Lee signed it on May 22, 2026. CVS filed a federal lawsuit challenging its constitutionality that same afternoon.
When the lawsuit landed, her framing cut through what CVS's PR team had spent months trying to prevent anyone from saying: the company claiming to protect Tennessee patients is the only company in Tennessee that owns both a PBM and retail pharmacies. The law is targeted at them because they are the only entity doing what the law prohibits.
"CVS builds corrupt business structure. Tennessee passes FAIR Rx. CVS files a lawsuit and inverts the narrative in public statements that gaslight audiences. CVS laughs as they knit more Where's Waldo scarves for upcoming court hearings."
— Jessica Baladad, May 23, 2026
Section III · State Campaign Record
Tennessee Legislation — A Documented Pattern of Results
Step Therapy · HB1956
Campaigns explaining how step therapy affects cancer treatment decisions and why timely access to physician-prescribed therapies matters. Toolkits and coordinated outreach to lawmakers as the legislation moved through the Tennessee General Assembly.
Genetic Testing · HB1775
Social engagement campaigns around legislation expanding insurance coverage for genetic testing and evidence-based imaging for individuals at elevated cancer risk — helping communities understand how the access affects early detection.
Certificate of Need · Editorial to Hearing
Authored a widely-read editorial on Tennessee's Certificate of Need laws advocating for expanded hospital access. The editorial led to an invitation to speak before the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission. The THFC voted to approve both hospitals' Certificate of Need applications.
340B Drug Pricing
Educational content and policy awareness campaigns helping patients understand how the 340B program works — and why accountability matters when hospitals purchase drugs at steep discounts while billing patients at standard rates.
Section IV · Capitol Hill
She Also Goes to Washington
Jessica regularly travels to Washington, D.C., to meet directly with federal lawmakers. The issues she brings to those conversations: PBM reform, QALY score concerns, copay accumulator policies, and step therapy practices. These are not constituent calls — they are direct, substantive meetings with congressional offices on the same policy questions the Remedy Room documents.
Her Feel For Your Life platform has also participated in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services roundtable discussions for breast cancer drugs, organizing patient input and preparing comments for federal policy conversations that influence drug pricing and access.
She has worked with Patients Rising through digital advocacy campaigns, grassroots mobilization, and patient advocacy training tied to state and federal healthcare initiatives — including QALY ban advocacy, PBM reform, 340B transparency, and copay accumulator policy awareness.
Note on S.3822 — The Federal Bill Her Work Points Toward
Jessica's Tennessee campaign work — prohibiting PBMs from owning pharmacies at the state level — is the grassroots embodiment of what S.3822 (the Break Up Big Medicine Act) would accomplish federally. The FAIR Rx Act and S.3822 are pointed at the same wall from different angles. Her Capitol Hill relationships and patient community represent exactly the kind of constituency that federal PBM reform needs. S.3822 is the federal ceiling above every state law she has helped pass.
Read the S.3822 analysis →Section V · Recognition
A Track Record That Speaks
NBCF Leadership Award · 2023
National Breast Cancer Foundation Leadership Award for advocacy efforts and commitment to supporting breast cancer patients and survivors. Also serves as NBCF Community Ambassador.
Nashville Scene Best Health App · 2023
Feel For Your Life voted Best Health App by the Nashville Scene, recognizing its impact on breast health awareness and early detection.
Ponce Law Hometown Hero · 2023
Recognized for advocacy work and contributions to improving health awareness in her community.
Mona Lisa Award · Renaissance Marketing Group
Selected for creativity, leadership, and impact through Feel For Your Life.
Overlooked Podcast · April 2025
Featured on Overlooked (women's health podcast) discussing breast self-exams, insurance denial patterns, and patient documentation strategies.
Background: Journalism + Psychology
Studied journalism and psychology. Spent years working alongside Dr. Henry Cloud on content exploring emotional, relational, and performance-based capacities — which shapes how she translates patient experience into policy messaging.
Connect with Jessica
Jessica Baladad welcomes collaboration with nonprofits, companies, and advocacy organizations working to elevate patient voices and engage communities around healthcare policy. She trains advocates, speaks at conferences, meets with lawmakers, and builds campaigns that translate lived experience into policy movement.