Cancer News, Treatment and Research

A U.S. Representative from Long Island, New York is rallying to change the sequestration-related Medicare cuts that are making life all the more difficult for the country’s cancer patients. U.S. Representative Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) is co-sponsoring the Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2013, a bill that would restore pre-sequestration levels of Medicare funding for cancer treatments . Bishop says he’s seen firsthand the damage the Medicare cuts have caused, hitting cancer patients with higher costs at a time in their lives when money is often already a concern. An article in The Three Village Patch sites a local Long Island hematology and oncology practice that’s had to send about 15 percent of its patients to hospitals for treatments because of the cuts. These patients normally would have been treated onsite at the community facility. “Having to migrate their treatment to hospitals is a huge stressor — higher co-pays, farther distances to travel. Hospitals are great places for sick patients, but in this instance, community oncology centers are better,” said Dr. Jeff Vacirca, the CEO of the North Shore Hematology/Oncology Associates in East Setauket, NY. Cancer treatments at a hospital, he notes, are typically more expensive, and because community cancer centers are being made to send their patients to hospitals, it’s estimated that coverage for treatments through Medicare will cost an average of $6500 per year per patient more than if they were being treated at local practices. Cancer treatment is already very expensive and often cost-prohibitive for the insured or underinsured, especially for those being treated for rare forms of the disease, including mesothelioma . Representative Bishop points out that even though the sequestration is thought to be saving some $85 billion in federal expenditures, this particular loophole that sends more patients to hospitals for their cancer treatment will wind up costing the government between $442 million and $600 million more than if their treatment continued at community oncology practices. Most cancer patients accustomed to being treated in a very personal setting find the changes very alarming. Tom McCloskey, who suffers from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, called the new measures “wrong” and urges other politicians from both parties to support the proposed bill. “It looks like it’s going to happen if they can’t cover the cost of the drugs,” he said. “It’s terrible. … Where am I going to go and what’s going to happen when I get there? Are the people going to know what I need? I was in a hospital in January and it was chaotic. I just can’t imagine all these people walking into the hospital, how they’re going to schedule us. They do this routinely here.”