NCCS sponsors IOM study to demographic issues in quality of cancer care
NCCS, along with 11 other organizations sponsored an Institute of Medicine (IOM) consensus study: Improving the Quality of Cancer Care: Addressing the Challenges of an Aging Population. On May 21, 2012, the committee began to examine issues in the quality of cancer care with a specific focus on the demographic changes ...
Focus on quality of life may cut health-care costs
A new focus on patient well being and quality-of-life issues could improve health-care outcomes and reduce costs, as WSJ explains in today’s special report on innovation in health care. Well-being and quality of life may seem like fairly vague concepts for doctors, compared to say, blood-pressure readings and cholesterol levels ...
HHS reaches important milestone for cancer survivors, consumers and small businesses seeking comprehensive and affordable health insurance coverage
On March 12, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the final rule governing the health insurance “exchanges.” As NCCS indicated in its comments on the proposed rule, HHS’ guidance on this topic represents an important milestone in the establishment of a marketplace in which consumers and small ...
Can patients refuse medical treatment?
A woman named Sheryl (not her real name) contacted me recently with a question that seemed rather simple on its face, and turned out to be far more complex. She is 60 years old and has a terminal disease, for which treatment will be debilitating and possibly painful. She has ...
