Oncologists Protest Funding Cuts

August 25, 2003
The Bush administration's surprise plan to cut Medicare payments for cancer drugs has alarmed oncologists, who fear they and their patients are being used as pawns in the current legislative battles over adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare.

Cancer doctors see a coordinated effort by the White House and Congress to siphon federal money from cancer treatment and use it for prescription drugs currently not covered by Medicare, according to The Hill, a Washington, D.C., newspaper that circulates on Capitol Hill.

In an act that caught many off guard, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) indicated earlier this month that it will soon issue a new regulation that will propose cutting Medicare payments for cancer drugs. Medicare does not pay for most outpatient prescription drugs but does cover some under certain circumstances, such as drugs used with organ transplantation and chemotherapy.

Both the House and Senate have passed legislation that would lower payments for cancer drugs, largely in response to longstanding concern that drug companies were bilking the government. Oncologists say the bills would hamper patients' access to cancer care.

Government auditors have concluded that Medicare overpayments for cancer and other drugs cost the taxpayers more than $1.6 billion a year.

Some observers view the new regulation as a maneuver to apply pressure on Congress to pass legislation this year. Others say it’s a pressure move on oncology groups to cut a deal with Congress.

In an Aug. 11 e-mail that was widely circulated, Gregory Patton of U.S. Oncology, a medical network of cancer physicians, said: “Not to be too paranoid, but a pattern is emerging…it looks as if the intent is to redistribute substantial Federal funding now consumed by cancer care to other more politically expedient and visible uses such as prescription drugs."

"Scully’s obvious strategy is to impose changes administratively rather than through the less controllable, less certain, and much slower legislative meat grinder. We in the oncology community are high profile targets," Patton said.

"Mobilizing our patients through appropriate organizations” is essential to defeating the proposed cuts, Patton added.

Patton later said he may have been too harsh in the e-mail but insisted the Administration's plan had more negatives than positives. If outpatient chemotherapy is not viable because of government cuts, there is no backup for cancer patients, Patton insisted.

Adding fuel to the fire, a former Medicare spokeswoman has spoken out against the administration’s regulation. In a letter to The New York Times, Joyce Winslow suggested the new rule would deliver “a belly punch to patients fighting for their lives.”