Health Care Roundup: Senate Hearing w/Pharma CEOs; Medicare for All Introduced; Logistical Toxicity; FDA Warns About Robotic Surgical Devices; More
Senate Finance Hearing on Drug Pricing — The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing this week on drug pricing, and Senators questioned seven CEOs from top pharmaceutical companies. While Senators of both parties asked tough questions about pricing practices and price increases, some experts suggested that the hearing was tamer ...
Health Care Roundup: Health Care Spending; Survivorship Care Delivery; Metastatic BC at NY Fashion Week; Susan Gubar on Financial Toxicity; More
This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published new health care spending projections for the United States. Unsurprisingly, Medicare spending growth is projected to outpace that of other payers in the coming decade due to enrollment growth and higher use of services. See a breakdown of the ...
NCCS and Cancer Leadership Council Highlight Potential Harm to Patients of Proposed Medicare Part D Changes
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released recently a proposed rule to change Medicare Part D’s protected classes drug coverage. In response, NCCS joined with other patient and provider groups of the Cancer Leadership Council (CLC) to comment on how these proposed changes could impact patients. The proposed ...
Health Care Roundup: Gov’t Shutdown Affects FDA; Health Care Hearings; Insomnia & Cancer; “When Cancer Meets the Internet;” More
Gov't Shutdown Affects FDA; Congressional Hearings on Health Care Scheduled – The government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history. This week, NCCS joined 46 groups in a letter to Congress and President Trump highlighting the impact the shutdown is having on the FDA’s work on behalf of patients ...
Health Care Roundup: Drug Pricing in TV Ads; Even with Insurance, Serious Illness Can Mean Financial Distress; Fertility in Young Survivors; More
HHS Proposes Rule Requiring Drug Pricing in TV Ads – On Monday, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar announced that HHS introduced a proposed rule to require direct-to-consumer television advertisements for prescription drugs include pricing information. According to the proposed rule, drugs paid for by Medicare ...
Health Care Roundup: NCCS on Proposed OPPS Changes; Bipartisan Proposal to End ‘Surprise Billing’; Medicaid Work Req’s; Financial Toxicity Survey; More
HEALTH CARE HIGHLIGHTS—NCCS submitted a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the proposed update to the hospital outpatient prospective payment system, known as OPPS, for calendar year 2019. In the letter, NCCS addressed the proposed “site neutral” payments, which would reduce patient cost-sharing but could ...
Patient Assistance Programs: Do They Help or Hurt?
By Rishi Sachdev and Yousuf Zafar, MD — New cancer drugs have improved prognoses for patients, but that improvement in effectiveness has come at a steep cost. The price tag of new anticancer drugs has been increasing at a significant pace, with the latest—Kymriah by Novartis—priced at $475,000 per treatment ...
WCOE: No Action on ACA Stabilization Bill; ‘Black Cancer Matters’; Risks of At-Home Genetic Testing; Hospital Payment Reform; and More
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE), is our week-in-review blog series. “Health insurers say the GOP-led Congress’ inaction on ACA stabilization legislation is sure to hurt consumers” Bruce Japsen, Forbes.com — After months of negotiating around an ACA stabilization package that was set to be included in this week’s spending bill, ...
What Caught Our Eye: Medicaid Coverage Limits; Cancer Care Cost Communication; Stanford Care Planning Study; Drug Pricing; and More
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series. “After Approving Medicaid Work Requirements, Trump HHS Aims for Lifetime Coverage Limits” — After allowing states to impose work requirements for Medicaid enrollees, the trump administration is now pondering lifetime limits on adults’ access to coverage. Capping health care benefits — ...
What Caught Our Eye: Idaho Allows Insurers to Ignore ACA Rules; Op-ed: Right to Try a ‘Disaster in the Making’; Financial Toxicity; and More
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series. “Obamacare will survive as Republicans give up on repeal” | By Dylan Scott, Vox.com — The Affordable Care Act is going to survive. The 2010 health care law has slowly but surely moved out of the line of fire. President Trump ...
