Medicare expands coverage for cancer drugs
WASHINGTON Medicare has quietly expanded its coverage for cancer drugs to include some treatments that place of safety’t gotten the Food and Drug Administration’s full assurance of approval.
The change was announced last summer with paltry fanfare and took effect in the fall. It property that doctors and patients seeking Medicare repayment for certain romance treatments won’t have to negotiate with the billing department for payment. But it’s furthermore real to augment Medicare spending, since cancer medications often cost thousands of dollars a month.
“In some instances … the medical common may have scientific evidence that supports using a drug to treat a ailment even if the drug’sitting FDA-approved label does not include those clinical conditions,” Medicare explained in a June 5 news release describing the policy.
The policy change was first reported Tuesday by The New York Times.
Medicare’s conclusion could evidence controversial, however. It deals by so-called “off-label” prescribing, a gray area in medical practice and government rule. While the FDA approves medications for specific uses, the agency is not allowed to dictate to doctors how they will practice medicine or prescribe drugs. For example, a doctor can write a prescription for a brain cancer drug and use it to treat kidney tumors.
That nuance may mean the difference between life and death for some patients. It’s also excellence billions to remedy companies, even supposing they are forbidden from promoting their medications in favor of off-label uses.
Cancer doctors strongly supported Medicare’s decision. Off-label prescribing has long been standard use in their field.
“Basically what this means is that in that place will have being faster coverage of evidence-based and appropriate cancer medications for patients,” declared Dr. Joseph Bailes, a spokesman for the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “It will dwarf the hassle factor.”
But some consumer advocates said Medicare should ensnare a second look at its new policy.
“I’m not doubtless I would say it’s a bad thing, but I entertain an idea of it was imprudent and needs to be re-evaluated,” said Steven Findlay, a health policy analyst for Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports. “We think it’s better to be careful. Evidence shows that some of these drugs extend life by a true ungenerous aggregate and at great cost.”
Medicare’s policy change essentially allows its billing contractors to use a broader range of pharmaceutical reference materials in deciding whether or not to approve remuneration for cancer put drugs into management.
These reference materials list uses not approved by the FDA for several medications. The editors of the allusion collections rascally their decisions mainly on reviews of scientific articles about medications. But many of the studies reported in those articles are financed by pharmaceutical companies seeking broader uses for their medications.
Medicare spokesman Peter Ashkenaz said the decision was not a concession to the drug industry, but a routine update of reference materials. Some of the reference books that Medicare previously relied put on were no longer being published.
Ashkenaz stressed that Medicare is not obligated to pay for a treatment just because it is listed in the pharmaceutical references. Doctors compose desire to show that prescribing a given cancer drug is “right and necessary,” he said.
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008676762_apmedicarecancerdrugs.html?syndication=rss
