The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) today criticized the newest round of cuts in cancer care as a move in the wrong direction of health care reform. Although not as devastating as expected, the cuts by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will still decrease reimbursements far beyond what the U.S. cancer care delivery system, including most patients, can bear.
Though many components of cancer care, such as treatment planning and follow-up care planning, are not reimbursed at all by Medicare, cuts were imposed on diagnostic imaging and services for the administration of life-saving cancer drugs; only cuts for therapeutic radiation were averted. For example, the CMS cuts for chemotherapy administration will phase in at 5% in 2010 and increase to almost 20% by 2013. These cuts come despite the fact that cancer is the number two killer of Americans every year.
"Oncologists have endured substantial Medicare payment reductions since 2004," said Patrick Cobb, M.D., president of COA and managing partner of Hematology-Oncology Center of the Northern Rockies in Billings, Montana. "Some practices will not survive even lower reimbursements again next year. This will limit the availability of care and the access to care, ultimately jeopardizing patient well-being. This most recent round of cuts is the first step to a slow death for cancer practices and to access problems for our patients."