Ellmers Reintroduces Bill to Care For Cancer Patients

Press Release

Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (R-NC-02) released the following statement this afternoon after reintroducing H.R. 1416 -- The Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2015:

"I am excited to re-introduce this legislation today with my colleague Congressman Israel in a bipartisan effort to protect millions of Medicare patients from the unintended consequences of sequestration. Close to 350 cancer clinics have closed and over 450 practices have merged into large hospital systems, resulting in access issues and higher costs for seniors."

"This issue hits home for me in more ways than one, as a large oncology practice in Dunn closed just last year because of this very issue. We cannot continue to put the health of cancer patients in jeopardy because of a misallocation in sequestration cuts."

"This legislation garnered broad bipartisan support in the 113th Congress, reaching of upwards of 123 cosponsors, and I look forward to this moving forward in the House this year."

Beginning April 1, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) applied sequestration by cutting all payments for cancer care services and cancer drugs by two percent, despite an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo to the contrary. As a result of these cuts, cancer centers across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, sending them to the more expensive hospital setting. This legislation, H.R. 1416, directs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to exempt chemotherapy drugs, and other physician-administered drugs, from the two percent cuts. This includes drugs used to treat cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis.

This legislation has no cost, as it merely directs HHS on how to implement sequestration, and does not change the spending level mandated in the Budget Control Act. Moreover, H.R. 1416 will actually save money by keeping patients in community health centers and out of the more expensive hospital setting. Because of these cuts, the increased cost to seniors on Medicare getting chemotherapy in the hospital setting is $6,500 more to taxpayers and $650 more patients.

Just yesterday, the American Association of Clinical Oncology released a report, The State of Cancer Care in America, that documents the consolidation of cancer care. According to the report,"for the more than 59 million Americans living in rural areas, a diagnosis of cancer can present unique challenges to obtaining high-quality care for their disease, including long travel distances and decreased access to specialists, and state-of-the-art diagnostics, treatments and technologies."

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