June 12: Contact Your Senators as Legislation to Halt Medicare Physician Payment Cuts Moves to the Floor, ASCO Runs Ad to Promote Research Funding
Contact Your Senators as Legislation to Halt Medicare Physician Payment Cuts Moves to the Floor The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (S. 3101), introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT), would halt the Medicare physician payment cuts by extending the current 0.5 percent update through the rest of 2008 and by providing an additional 1.1 percent update for calendar year 2009.
This bill was introduced late last week and the Senate is expected to begin consideration of the bill today, June 12. Unless Congress acts, Medicare physician payments will be slashed by 10.6 percent on July 1.
For more information, contact ASCO’s Cancer Policy & Clinical Affairs Department at 703-299-1050 or publicpolicy@asco.org.
Congressional Quarterly Sponsors Forum Addressing Innovations in Cancer Research On June 4, cancer community leaders, including ASCO President Richard Schilsky, MD, spoke at a Congressional Quarterly Health Forum on issues related to cancer research.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) spoke about comprehensive cancer care legislation that she and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) are developing. Kavita Patel, MD, the lead staff person on this bill for Sen. Kennedy, also made remarks about Sen. Kennedy’s commitment to the legislation. The bill will focus on cancer prevention, health care disparities, cancer research, quality cancer care and access to care. Sen. Kennedy’s and Hutchison’s staffs are continuing to meet with key constituents to finalize the legislation, and it will likely be introduced later this summer.
Dr. Schilsky talked about the need for the public to understand why there is a crucial need to increase funding for cancer research. Specifically, he focused on how oncology discoveries help expand research into treatment for other diseases, the importance of addressing health disparities, the need to maintain and grow a strong oncology workforce, and developing tools to better educate the patient community about how to access cancer clinical trials.
Representatives from Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Research!America also participated in the forum.
For more information, contact ASCO’s Cancer Policy & Clinical Affairs Department, at 703-299-1050 or publicpolicy@asco.org.
ASCO Runs Ad to Promote Research Funding
On June 2, ASCO ran an ad in USA Today to raise awareness of the need to increase federal funding for cancer research. The ad featured former ASCO President David H. Johnson, MD, FACP, director of hematology/oncology at the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center and a lymphoma survivor. The timing of the ad publication coincided with the 2008 ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago.
ASCO ran the ad in USA Today with the hopes of reaching a diverse audience across the United States; USA Today is read by more than 2.2 million people every day. During the week after the ad ran, the number of visitors to ASCO’s research funding Web site quadrupled from the previous week.
ASCO also posted an online petition that readers can sign in order to show their support for increased funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). If you have not done so, ASCO urges you to review the ad and sign the online petition.
For more information, contact ASCO’s Cancer Policy & Clinical Affairs Department at 703-299-1050 or researchpolicy@asco.org.
NCCN Drugs & Biologics Compendium Named as Mandated Reference for Medicare Coverage On June 5, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it has added the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Drugs & Biologics Compendium as a reference for Medicare coverage of chemotherapy drugs.
CMS will no longer use the American Medical Association Drug Evaluations (AMA-DE) compendium, which is not updated or maintained.
More information about compendia decisions can be found online, or contact ASCO’s Cancer Policy & Clinical Affairs Department, at 703-299-1050 or practice@asco.org.
NIH Enhances Peer Review Effort On June 6, at the 96th Meeting of the Advisory Committee to the Director, NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, MD, announced critical changes to enhance and improve the NIH peer review system for both applicants and reviewers. This announcement marks the end of a year-long effort by internal and external NIH communities to examine the NIH peer review process.
The Implementation Plan Report details four main priority topics that will be implemented in phases over the next 18 months, including:
Engaging the Best Reviewers.
Improving the Quality and Transparency of Reviews.
Ensuring Balances and Fair Reviews Across Scientific Fields and Career Stages.
Developing a Permanent Process for Continuous Review of the NIH Peer Review process.
As part of the implementation plan, Dr. Zerhouni stated NIH would commit $1 billion over the next five years to investigator-initiated high-risk, high-impact transformative research. As part of this commitment, NIH will create a new investigator-initiated R01 Award program funded within the NIH Roadmap with an intended minimum of $250 million over five years. NIH will invest at least $750 million to continue, and possibly expand the use of, the Pioneer, EUREKA, and New Innovator Awards.
ASCO submitted comments on the NIH Peer Review Process twice over the last year. Information about ASCO’s comments to NIH on its peer review revisions is available in the March 19 issue of Cancer Policy Today.
For more information, contact ASCO’s Cancer Policy & Clinical Affairs Department at 703-299-1050 or researchpolicy@asco.org.
Craig Lustig, Co-Chair of the Alliance for Childhood Cancer, of which ASCO is a member, opened the briefing by discussing the importance of enhancing research and programs for childhood cancer survivors. Smita Bhatia, MD, of City of Hope, a leading research and cancer treatment hospital in southern California, spoke about the late effects that many survivors of childhood cancers experience.
In addition, Susan Weiner, founder of the Children’s Cause for Cancer Advocacy, spoke about the legislation and how it evolved from the recommendations made in the 2003 Institute of Medicine report on cancer survivorship.
The briefing closed with Jenny Smith, a 23-year-old who was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma during her second year of college, who shared her personal experience advocating for childhood cancer. The bill, known as the Childhood Cancer Survivorship Act, would lead to improved health for the growing number of survivors of childhood cancers by improving and expanding the delivery of medical and psychosocial care to survivors of childhood cancer.
Specifically, the legislation would establish:
NIH cancer survivorship programs, including grants to address health disparities in childhood cancer survivorship.
Clinics for comprehensive long-term follow-up services for survivors of childhood cancer.
Grants to improve access to care for survivors of childhood cancer.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cancer control programs aimed to provide guidance to states and encourage them to improve systems of care for survivors of childhood cancer.
The House version of this bill currently has 22 co-sponsors. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) introduced the Senate version of the bill (S. 2877) this past April.
For more information, contact ASCO’s Cancer Policy and Clinical Affairs Department at 703-299-1050 or publicpolicy@asco.org.
ASCO recommended that NIH use resources from the Common Fund to conduct a study to identify the full range of long term and late effects of treatment and to detect interactions of cancer treatments with co-morbid conditions that includes large, heterogeneous populations of cancer survivors. ASCO’s proposal discussed NIH focusing on a wide variety of issues impacting cancer survivors – including the medical, psychosocial, economic, and legal consequences of being a survivor of a chronic illness. The proposal would examine the impact of survivorship trends for both providers and patients.
NIH developed its Common Fund/Roadmap in 2004 to support programs that address fundamental knowledge gaps, develop transformative tools and technologies, and foster innovative approaches to complex problems.
For more information, contact ASCO’s Cancer Policy & Clinical Affairs Department at 703-299-1050 or researchpolicy@asco.org.
Participate in the Physician Practice Information Survey The American Medical Association (AMA) and more than 70 other organizations are conducting a comprehensive multi-specialty survey of America’s physician practices. The results will be used to positively influence national decision makers to ensure accurate and fair representation for all physicians and patients, and to articulate the challenges of running a practice that provides expert patient care, while operating a business that is sustainable. Of particular importance is the section of the study pertaining to practice expenses and the amounts that are attributable to you.
CMS will use the results of this study to help determine physician payment. The survey firm, Dmrkynetec, will contact randomly selected physicians and practice managers to collect responses. All responses will remain confidential.
Please alert your staff regarding your willingness to participate in this survey and the importance of accepting incoming calls, faxes or emails from Dmrkynetec. If you are selected to participate in this effort and have any questions, call Dmrkynetec toll-free at 1-877-816-8940 and ask to speak with an executive interviewer about the 2008 Physician Information and Practice Expense Survey.
News and Notes ASCO Conducting Learning Needs Assessment of Member Physicians ASCO is conducting a Needs Assessment of community practice members, focusing on learning styles, barriers to learning, access to technology, and other educational topics. This information will help ASCO more closely tailor products and meetings to members’ individual needs. You may be invited to join a focus group or to simply answer a few questions about your specific educational needs and how ASCO can help.
New ESA Instruction Sheet Available on ASCO Web site An instruction sheet on reporting hematocrit/hemoglobin in conjunction with claims for erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) is available on ASCO’s Web site.
Join ASCO's Advocacy Network Advocacy is most effective when Members of Congress and government agencies hear from you, their constituents. By participating in ASCO's Advocacy Network, you will have the opportunity to develop ongoing relationships with your legislators while helping ASCO raise awareness on important cancer issues. To join the Advocacy Network, visit ASCO's Grassroots Action Center.
ASCO Extends Resources to Practice Administrators ASCO encourages members whose practice administrators are interested in receiving Cancer Policy Today to forward their administrator's contact information to practice@asco.org.
