Reforming Payments to Physicians Caring for Medicare Beneficiaries
By the first quarter of 2014, the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) and its colleagues in the cancer advocacy community may see substantial progress toward a Medicare payment system that rewards quality and focuses on care planning and coordination. These core principles have been advanced by NCCS and its ...
End-of-Session Activities in Congress: The Race to a Budget Deal
The 113th Congress, which is ending its first session in a matter of days, has been criticized for being the least productive Congress in recent memory. In the race to adjourn for the year, Congress is seeking to complete action on a budget deal and to take initial steps toward reforming ...
Call to Action: Contact Congress and Support the 2013 PACT Act
Earlier this month, the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committees unveiled a Medicare reform package that transitions the physician payment system to one that rewards physicians for the quality of care they provide instead of the volume of services they provide. These changes in Medicare, which will be ...
NCCS Policy Comments: Rewarding Quality of Care Among Other Measures in SGR Legislative Proposal
NCCS submitted comments to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways & Means Committee on a draft proposal to repeal the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula and reform Medicare physician payment system. NCCS commended the committees on developing a bipartisan, bicameral approach that would reward quality of care instead ...
NCCS Comments on Proposed Physician Fee Schedule for 2014
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 ...
Cancer Leadership Council Statement: Reform Medicare Payment for Patient-Focused Care
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 ...
NCCS Senior Policy Advisor Responds to Opinionator “A Plan to Fix Cancer Care”
NCCS Senior Policy Advisor Ellen Stovall’s advice for immediate reform of cancer care was published in a letter to the editor of the New York Times on April 1, 2013. Letters from Ms. Stovall and four other writers commented on an opinion piece by Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel and others, ...
NY Times Opinionator: A Plan To Fix Cancer Care
In a recent New York Times Opinionator essay, Ezekiel J. Emanuel is joined by more than 20 prominent members of the oncology community in outlining five major changes to be made to the health care system to ensure sustainability of care. This year, more than 1.6 million Americans — 0.5 percent of ...
“Making Cancer Drugs Less Expensive” Linking Clinical Value to Price
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 ...
Cancer Leadership Council Submits Comments on the Proposed Rule on Medicaid Cost-Sharing and Other Issues
NCCS joined colleagues in the cancer advocacy community in submitting comments regarding proposed standards for the expanded Medicaid program that was established by the Affordable Care Act. The rules that have been proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would grant a state great flexibility in the design ...
