
Health Care Roundup: NCCS Meets with Senate Offices Re CMS Waivers; Poor Hospital Quality; Married vs. Single May Impact Cancer Treatment; More
NCCS Meets with Senate Offices to Share Serious Concerns Regarding New CMS Waiver Guidance — This week, NCCS and other organizations in the Cancer Leadership Council participated in meetings with Senate offices to discuss the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) recent waiver guidance. This guidance would permit states ...

Health Care Roundup: CMS Issues New Waiver Options to States to Undermine ACA; Open Enrollment Numbers Still Lag; Role of AI in Health Care; More
CMS Issues New Waiver Options to Undermine the Affordable Care Act — This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released four new waiver concepts that would allow states to pursue alternatives to the ACA. This announcement follows recent CMS guidance that outlined broad authority to the states ...

NCCS Strongly Objects to New CMS Waiver Options That Seek to Further Undermine the ACA
NCCS issued the following statement regarding today’s announcement by the Trump administration outlining options states can pursue to circumvent the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Today’s announcement of these policy options follows previous Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) guidance that outlined broad authority to the states to design their ...

Health Care Roundup: ACA Open Enrollment News; Head and Neck Survivor Mental Health Study; Fear of Recurrence Webinar; More
Open Enrollment for ACA Now Underway — Open enrollment for 2019 ACA plans began yesterday and will run through December 15, 2018. Despite numerous attempts to repeal the ACA in 2017 and an ongoing court case in Texas, the ACA continues ahead, business as usual, for the most part. Many ...

Health Care Roundup: New Medicare Drug Pricing Proposal; New ACA Waiver Guidance; High Price of Precision Medicine; Midterms; More
A Week of Proposals and New Regulations – This week, there were several regulations and proposals announced by the Trump Administration that would impact health care in the U.S. The announcement that made the biggest splash was revealed yesterday and would require drugs administered by physicians and paid for by ...

Patient and Consumer Groups Urge Federal Court to Issue Preliminary Injunction Against Short-Term Insurance Rule
U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon is expected to hear oral arguments today in Washington, D.C., from groups challenging a rule implementing changes to short-term, limited-duration (STLD) insurance plans. The hearing in the case Association for Community Affiliated Plans v. United States Department of Treasury will allow the plaintiffs ...

Coalition, Including NCCS, Urges CMS to Withdraw Guidance Threatening Millions of Americans Who Have Pre-Existing Conditions
More than 25 patient and consumer groups representing millions of people nationwide with pre-existing health conditions issued the following statement in response to administration guidance issued on October 22nd that gives states greater ability to skirt patient protections included in the Affordable Care Act: “The guidance issued by the Administration ...

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 ...

NCCS Joins 11 Organizations in Filing Amicus Curiae Brief Supporting Lawsuit Challenging Short-Term Health Plans
The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) joined 11 other patient groups in filing an amicus curiae (or “friend of the court”) brief in support of the lawsuit that challenges the regulation authorizing short-term health insurance plans. The amicus curiae brief explains to the court the potentially devastating impact of ...

Health Care Roundup: ‘Misleading’ Pre-Existing Conditions Bill; Clinical Trials Lack Black Patients; ‘Cancer Coaching’ Ethics; Young Adult Cancer Advocates
NCCS and 30+ Patient Orgs Raise Concerns Over Senate Pre-Ex Bill — This week, NCCS and more than 30 other patient advocacy organizations submitted a letter to Senator Tillis (R-NC) detailing why his bill does not go far enough in protecting pre-existing conditions despite his intentions. The bill title, “Ensuring ...