ICYMI: Community Oncologists Speak Out Against Hospital Cancer Doctors’ Drug Price Control Proposals

In case you missed it, the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) called the drug-price control recommendations made by 118 oncologists published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings “misguided because most of the doctors behind the suggestions work for large, teaching hospitals where cancer care is more expensive than at cancer clinics.”

Check out a few highlights below and read the story here. A subscription to Inside Health Policy is required.

• According to Community Oncology Alliance Executive Director Okon, “Most of the doctors who endorsed the recommendations in the journal are employed by large teaching institutions, many of which receive 340B drug discounts, and nearly 30 percent of the signatories are employed by a small group of hospitals where cancer care is high even compared to teaching hospitals.”
  
• “There are 11 hospitals that Medicare reimburses based on their reported costs, instead of paying them like all other hospitals based on a predetermined amount for the clinical classification of services they provide…these 11 hospitals charge Medicare higher prices to treat cancer patients that aren't much sicker or more complicated than patients treated at teaching hospitals that are reimbursed based on the Medicare fee schedule.”
  

To read more about why focusing on only one percent of spending will not solve health care spending challenges, click here.