The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in an important nationwide conversation about Americans’ accessibility to quality care.
But beyond the immediate pandemic crisis, there are many other opportunities to improve access to the best healthcare available.
One of these opportunities has to do with an up-and-coming cancer treatment known as CAR-T therapy. It is one of the great hopes of the cancer community that CAR-T therapy will also treat other blood and solid tumor cancers — ongoing clinical trials will soon tell us more.
Unfortunately, Medicare only reimburses a few select hospitals and doctors performing CAR-T in largely urban areas. This could jeopardize a cancer patient’s ability to get care, even if they are willing to travel to a larger, out-of-state hospital.
The good news is that the Trump administration took steps to remedy this. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a proposal to implement a long-term solution to reimburse doctors performing CAR-T therapy.
CMS should continue their efforts on cancer care access and create a lasting long-term solution for providers which, in turn, will help increase appropriate patient access.
The impact of COVID-19 over the past several weeks has demonstrated it is paramount that Americans have access to quality health care, regardless of where they live.
The administration is on the right path towards demonstrating its commitment to caring for Americans with cancer by expanding access to the most promising treatments available.
– Andrew J. Brown, Jr. is Director of Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and Director of the Linda Jenckes Health Care Public Policy Program at ICAN, International Cancer Advocacy Network, a research advocacy organization. AJ is based in Boston and represents ICAN at CAR-T conferences in the northeast, encouraging greater access to CAR-T on the part of underserved patient populations.
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