Medicare Cuts Are the Wrong Prescription
Brooklyn Downtown Star (NY)Jul 27, 2016
More than 1.5 million Americans are living with Rheumatoid Arthritis.
A diagnosis is life altering, as RA causes chronic swelling and pain and increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, and depression. After learning they have the disease, many patients head to their local
But if
Most patients with RA, cancer, osteoporosis, and other serious conditions rely on medicines that are delivered intravenously, under the supervision of a doctor. Today, clinics and Infusion Centers buy these medicines directly, and then Part B reimburses them the drug's average sales price plus another 4.3 percent, which accounts for administrative costs, storage, overhead, and more.
For some patients, the change won't matter - as the drugs they need have been on the market for decades. But for many patients, especially those with chronic, auto-immune diseases like RA, the best drugs are the newest, most-advanced medicines without cheaper alternatives.
Physicians will struggle to offer such drugs under
Heading to a large hospital generally means longer travel and wait times. And because treatment costs are higher at hospitals, taxpayers will suffer, too.
By being sent to big hospitals for treatment, patients with these diseases also will lose the personalized care of their clinic doctors. As
Some centers will even be forced to close.
Clinics and Infusion Centers barely break even under the current formula. Repeated
With so many centers treading water, this new round of reimbursement cuts would drown clinics and centers in red ink. In 2013, when officials last cut the reimbursements rate, dozens of cancer clinics closed and acquisitions by hospitals increased 20 percent.
Right now, when patients receive a diagnosis of RA, cancer, or another serious disease, many find comfort in the knowledge that they'll have access to miracle drugs that previous generations could only dream of, and that their doctor will be by their side throughout the treatments.
But if