NCCS submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the proposed rule that addresses Medicare Part B payment policies for 2014. In its comments, NCCS commended CMS for its efforts to foster care management, including codes for transitional care management which were implemented in 2013. In ...

NCCS filed comments in support of proposed cancer care quality measures that will be utilized to assess the cancer care provided by the prospective payment system (PPS)-exempt cancer hospitals.  In its comments, NCCS focused on the outcome measure that will assess the performance of PPS-exempt institutions in preventing inpatient admission ...

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) and Congressman Charles Boustany, Jr., M.D., (R-LA) today introduced the Planning Actively for Cancer Treatment (PACT) Act (H.R. 2477), which would significantly improve the quality and coordination of care for Medicare patients with cancer. The bill is the top federal policy priority of ...

NCCS joined its colleagues in the Cancer Leadership Council in publishing a statement of principles to guide reform of Medicare payment for cancer care.  Major news outlets have suggested that Medicare beneficiaries are not receiving their cancer care due to the 2% cuts in Medicare payments required under the sequestration ...

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Hagop Kantarjian, Leonard Zwelling, and Tito Fojo offer a perspective on cancer drug prices as well as advice on how to reduce prices. In his book “Justum Pretium,” Aristotle discusses the relationship between price and worth, a topic continued 16 centuries later ...

A study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined changes in end-of-life care for Medicare beneficiaries from 2000 to 2009. The study authors reported an increase in the use of hospice care, particularly for cancer patients, but also an increase in ICU usage, health care transitions ...

In an editorial published in the January 2, 2013, issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute,  Theodore Lawrence and Mary Feng discuss a recent study that compared proton radiotherapy and photon radiotherapy for treatment of prostate cancer in Medicare patients.  Lawrence and Feng identify the shortcomings of the ...

IT is conventional wisdom that end-of-life care is an increasingly huge proportion of health care spending. I’ve often heard it said that people spend more on health care in the year before they die than they do in the entire rest of their lives. If we don’t address these costs, ...

White House officials say they are confident the Supreme Court will uphold the health-care law, but they also are preparing for a range of outcomes, including pressing ahead with what remains of the law if the court strikes down only part of it. Republicans, meanwhile, are preparing a two-step approach ...

On March 16, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule to help states make it easier for millions more Americans to enroll in comprehensive coverage under the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) programs. This rule will help states implement the significant expansion in the ...