It Takes a Team – Connecting with Survivors at the Amgen Tour of California
Last week, four members of the NCCS team traveled from our home office outside of DC to join our Breakaway from Cancer partners for eight stages of an outdoor festival at the Amgen Tour of California. Our work with Breakaway from Cancer is an opportunity to get the word out ...
WCOE: Ethics and Discussions about Patient Goals and Preferences, Evidence-Based Medicine
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE) Each week, we take a closer look at the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. “I must always remind myself that living for the sake of living cannot be the ultimate goal. It has to be informed by quality of life. Only ...
Rep. Lois Capps Speaks on Bill to Improve Cancer Care Planning (Video)
Representative Lois Capps (D-CA) recently spoke about the importance of the Planning Actively for Cancer Treatment (PACT) Act and the need for quality cancer care and care coordination for Medicare beneficiaries. Research has confirmed that coordinated cancer care outlined in a written care plan — care that integrates active treatment ...
Why We Care About Physician Payment
Why should patients care about how physicians are paid? Because the way we as a country, and Medicare as the largest payer, compensate physicians directly affects the care patients receive. Our current system is not sustainable for physicians, patients, or taxpayers. The manner in which Medicare currently reimburses for cancer ...
Journey Forward: How Can We Make Survivorship Care Planning a Reality?
I recently attended the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) Spring Meeting. The CoC membership includes Fellows of the American College of Surgeons, as well as representatives from 52 other member organizations. In 2010, NCCS became one of four patient advocacy organizations to serve as members of the ...
WCOE: Employment Issues, Health Systems, Defining Value in Cancer Care
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE) Each week, we take a closer look at the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. “Many clinicians believe that although patients may miss work during treatment, they will ‘bounce back’ in the longer term. The results of this study suggest otherwise and ...
ACOs and Delivering Care for Older Adults: Two Recent Articles That Caught Our Attention
"What We Can Learn by Listening to Older Adults" Chris Langston, a program director at the John A. Hartford Foundation, penned a recent Prepared Patient Blog post that resides on the Center for Advancing Health (CFAH) website. It refers to what many of us have learned from our work in patient advocacy which points ...
NCCS Applauds Test of Care Choices for Cancer Patients
The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) applauds the recent decision by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to initiate the Medicare Care Choices Model, a project to evaluate the impact of permitting Medicare patients to receive ongoing curative care while also receiving hospice care. “NCCS has focused its ...
Amy Berman’s Perspective of Palliative Treatment Highlights Issues in “Triple Aim” Approach to Health Care Delivery
If you already know of Amy Berman, have heard her story, or have been fortunate enough to have spent time with her, you will read more about what words like "patient centered" and "choosing wisely" look like when carried out to treat metastatic cancer. And you will also be exposed to ...
NCCS Joins Colleagues in Commending the Work of the Senate Finance Committee on the SGR Repeal
NCCS joined colleagues in the Cancer Leadership Council in commending the work of the Senate Finance Committee on the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014. The legislation offers a responsible process for moving the Medicare program away from a system that emphasizes volume of services to ...
