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madfloridian

(88,117 posts)
Tue Apr 9, 2013, 12:18 AM Apr 2013

Joint Statement in Response to Community Cancer Sequester Cuts Effective April 1st.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology, Community Oncology Alliance, International Oncology Network/AmerisourceBergen and The US Oncology Network

Today, America's seniors and the physicians who care for them will begin to feel the impact of a federal government policy that was never supposed to happen. Sequestration has been applied to Medicare, reducing payments to physicians and care providers. This is bad news for all seniors, but likely devastating for seniors struggling with cancer. The Administration has decided to apply the sequester cuts not only to services physicians and others provide, but also to the fixed, pass-through costs of chemotherapy and related cancer-fighting drugs used to treat and manage this life-threatening disease.

More than 60 percent of cancer patients in the United States rely on Medicare. A series of misguided Medicare reimbursement cuts has created an unsustainable situation whereby many community cancer care providers operate at a loss when providing treatment to Medicare patients. Medicare reimburses community cancer clinics for chemotherapy based on an average sales price (ASP) and an additional services payment (6%) for administrative costs and financial risks associated with handling, storage, preparation, administration, and disposal of these highly toxic drugs. Unfortunately, Medicare payment falls short, and many cancer clinics are currently paid less than it costs to treat seniors fighting cancer.

Community cancer care providers are struggling to survive in this unsustainable environment. Until recently, more than 80 percent of the nation's cancer patients were treated in physicians' offices in the community setting. Since 2008, more than 1,200 community cancer care centers have closed, consolidated, or reported financial problems. The result has been patient access problems, increased costs to seniors, Medicare, and taxpayers due to the migration of Medicare patients to costlier care settings, and new barriers to care for elderly patients in remote areas. When community cancer clinics close their doors, access to cancer care is compromised for all cancer patients, but especially vulnerable seniors.

The sequester cut to cancer drugs threatens viability of community cancer care. In effect, the government is forcing clinics to subsidize Medicare — that is, to make up the difference between what Medicare pays and the actual cost of cancer drugs. Health care providers are never comfortable putting their work in purely economic terms, but the fact is community cancer clinics are small businesses held to the economic reality that operating at a loss cannot be sustained. It is hard to imagine any business—small or otherwise—accepting a policy that requires operating at a loss. Oncologists should not be put in the untenable position of continuing to treat patients at a loss, which will result in clinic closings, or being unable to treat Medicare seniors fighting cancer in order to keep the clinic doors open.


Bill Moyers also has concern about serious cuts that will create more homeless.

Sequestration Means Less Affordable Housing, More Homelessness

But here’s what it means when it comes to housing: up to 140,000 fewer low-income families receiving housing vouchers, more children exposed to lead paint, higher rent for people who can’t afford it and a rise in homelessness.

These are among the human costs of sequestration noted in a new paper by Doug Rice, senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, who has worked on housing policy for ten years.

“These kinds of cuts are really unprecedented,” Rice told me. “The Section 8 voucher program has been around for nearly 40 years — it was created during the Nixon Administration and has had strong, bipartisan support for its entire history. Part of that support has consisted of Congress providing adequate money to ensure that the vouchers currently used by families are renewed from year to year.”

But for just the third time in 39 years, Congress will not fund local housing agencies so that they can renew all current vouchers. A $938 million cut in the voucher program translates to a 6 percent shortfall below what is needed to maintain assistance to the same number of families in 2013 as last year.
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Joint Statement in Response to Community Cancer Sequester Cuts Effective April 1st. (Original Post) madfloridian Apr 2013 OP
Can you just imagine a person having their cancer treatment stopped? madfloridian Apr 2013 #1
Unreal nt Demo_Chris Apr 2013 #2
Yes, it is. madfloridian Apr 2013 #3
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