Senate Bill to Protect Patients' Healthcare by Amending Medicar...(the delivery of cancer care treatment to...),Health

Date:6/11/2009

the delivery of cancer care treatment to patients. Cancer care must be understood as different from general healthcare in that it is catastrophic in its threat to life, its potency of treatment and its cost. The cancer care delivery system is now in first-stage crisis because Medicare has substantially cut payment for cancer drugs and essential services.

Almost all Americans are currently treated in community cancer clinics, many of which have had to cut staff and close satellite facilities.

Patients with insufficient or no insurance, especially seniors and the swelling ranks of the unemployed, are increasingly being sent elsewhere for treatment and some patients are actually foregoing treatment.

"Especially during these tough economic times, millions of patients should not have to opt-out of quality cancer treatment because they can't afford it," said U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS).

The problem not only centers on payments for cancer drugs, but also on essential services provided to cancer patients, such as treatment planning, which are not reimbursed by Medicare.

The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) has aggressively advocated for the prompt pay solution.

"We appreciate the leadership of Senator Specter, who has long supported cancer care funding issues, and Senator Roberts for cosponsoring this important legislation," said Patrick Cobb, M.D., president of the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) and managing partner of Hematology-Oncology Centers of the Northern Rockies in Billings, Montana.

"This bipartisan bill is a welcomed and needed first step in supporting community cancer clinics," he continued. "The passage of these congressional bills will enable community oncology clinics to continue providing patients with cancer care treatments currently not properly reimbursed by Medicare."

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SOURCE Community Oncology Alliance Copyright©2009 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

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