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Cancer Policy Today
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This is a bi-weekly series of communications for ASCO members and others in the cancer community. These timely updates will keep you informed about ASCO’s regulatory and legislative efforts and future advocacy efforts related to Cancer Research, Quality Care and Medicare.
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November 9, 2009
On October 30, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the final 2010 physician fee schedule that includes a 1 percent reduction for oncology services. After months of debate, on November 7 the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a vote of 220-215 the Affordable Health Care for America Act, a trillion-dollar health reform package to provide insurance coverage to most Americans. Today ASCO released its award-winning report, Clinical Cancer Advances 2009: Major Research Advances in Cancer Treatment, Prevention and Screening, an independent assessment identifying the top advances in cancer care from the past year.
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October 26, 2009
On October 23, ASCO sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) expressing deep concern about a proposal to tie payment rates for health care professionals under the public insurance plan option to Medicare payment rates. The Senate did not move forward legislation to repeal the SGR formula, so other legislative options are currently being considered. The House Appropriations Committee is drafting a continuing resolution to fund the federal government at FY 2009 levels past the end of October. The current CR expires October 31.
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October 13, 2009
Members of ASCO’s Government Relations Committee visited key lawmakers on Capitol Hill to discuss ASCO’s priority issues during the health reform debate.ASCO President-Elect George W. Sledge, Jr., MD, addressed breast cancer awareness, treatment and prevention. ASCO, along with 35 physician organizations, sent a letter to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to express concern with the definition of “meaningful use” for electronic health records
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September 28, 2009
ASCO President Douglas W. Blayney, MD, spoke at a meeting of NCI’s National Cancer Advisory Board about the challenges facing the U.S. research and health care systems and how innovative approaches and collaborations may offer solutions. ASCO signed a letter urges Senators to ensure that any health system reform legislation passed by Congress includes provisions to replace the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula with a new Medicare physician payment system. The Senate Finance Committee is marking up comprehensive health care reform legislation introduced September 16 by Committee Chair Sen. Max Baucus. The committee may vote on the legislation this week.
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September 14, 2009
As the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate reconvened September 8, abolishing proposed cuts to the Medicare physician fee schedule remains at the top of ASCO’s agenda. As a record number of oncology practices participate in ASCO's new quality improvement program, ASCO gets set to launch its QOPI certificate program this fall. ASCO has published a new Discussion Guide to help health care providers talk to women at high risk for breast cancer who may be eligible to receive risk reduction agents.
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August 31, 2009
ASCO submitted comments to CMS, addressing concerns about cuts to oncology services in the proposed 2010 Physician Fee Schedule.ASCO submitted comments August 28 on CMS’s proposed changes to the Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and 2010 Payment Rates.On August 13, FDA published two final rules related to patient access to investigational drugs. ASCO has developed a summary and analysis of the rules.
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August 17, 2009
On August 7, the Senate approved the nomination of Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, as Director of NIH. . On August 14, CNN.com posted a "Commentary" article by the presidents of ASCO and the Oncology Nursing Society, addressing the debate over end-of-life care provisions in health reform legislation. And on August 13, FDA published its final rules on expanded access to and charging for investigational drugs.
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August 3, 2009
On July 30, ASCO met with the CMS acting administrator and relevant staff to express deep concern about cuts to oncology in the proposed Medicare fee schedule. Also on July 30, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to include language in its health care reform legislation that would remove prompt pay discounts extended to drug wholesalers from the ASP calculation and the Senate Appropriations Committee passed a FY 2010 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriation bill, which includes $30.8 billion in funding for NIH.
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July 20, 2009
The House Appropriations Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee has approved a FY 2010 spending bill that would give NIH a $942 million funding increase from FY 2009. Also, ASCO published a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that shows that research sites differ in their approaches to compliance with federal Privacy Rule requirements, and that these differences can result in delays to important research projects.
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July 6, 2009
CMS released its proposed physician fee schedule for 2010 last week, which included cuts to oncology care. ASCO is working to ensure that proposed reductions in payments to oncology practices are blocked.
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