|
|
|
|
||
|
||
|
|
||
| SEARCH | SUBSCRIBE | ||
|
 |
Cancer
doctors fault Medicare bills By
Nicole Foy Express-News
Medical, July 18, 2003 A
move in Congress to slash Medicare payments for cancer treatments
administered outside of hospitals could severely limit patient access to
care, some oncologists warn. The
measure could force some doctors to turn away seniors with cancer, causing
them to seek treatment at hospitals instead, charged Dr. Lon Smith,
president of South Texas Oncology and Hematology, a local physician group.
It
also could mean cancer care clinics, in an attempt to save money and stay
in business, would close their doors completely or choose to forgo newer,
more expensive drugs for less costly options, he said. "The
cuts in this bill will drastically reduce access to the treatment patients
currently receive in doctors' offices across the country," he said. Supporters
of the cuts say the savings would help relieve the burden on Medicare
patients who pay for overpriced drugs. According
to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the House and Senate bills
establishing prescription drug coverage under Medicare would cut more than
$500 million — 30 percent — annually from cancer care in outpatient
offices. Medicare
officials say the current system grossly overcompensates physicians for
treatment services by basing payment on the average wholesale price of the
drugs — a formula based on pharmaceutical industry price reports.
Government estimates have reported drug overpayments at about $1 billion
annually. Although
oncologists acknowledge the system is flawed, they stress it is set up
that way to subsidize essential services that go unfunded. For
instance, Medicare currently does not reimburse physicians' offices for
administering drugs to cancer patients, so the drug overpayments go toward
that cost, they say. Although
both versions of the bill would provide funding for those services, many
in the cancer care community say the language is too vague or the
provisions aren't enough. Hundreds
of oncologists, including many from San Antonio, were in Washington this
week to ask lawmakers to reconsider the potential cuts. Bills
passed the House and Senate last month, and a conference committee now is
working on ironing out the differences. Dr.
Allison Garner, another oncologist, said the House version under
consideration would force doctors to go through a vendor for drugs, making
the system more cumbersome. U.S.
Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, said he wants a better system to
adequately cover all oncologists' costs of caring for seniors with cancer.
He criticized the current language of the House and Senate bills. "You'd
think there'd be some sort of logic to it, but it's all about money,"
he said. "The logic is simply to get it down to the least cost."
Gonzalez
is having a town hall meeting on the issue at 10 a.m. Saturday at the
Cancer Therapy and Research Center, 7979 Wurzbach Road, in the Grossman
Building. Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
|
