Puget Sound Cancer Patients Threatened by Federal Funding Cuts in Medicare Drug Bill.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

SEATTLE & EDMONDS, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 2003

Local Cancer Center Reveals List of Lawmakers Who've

Signed on to Support Cancer Care -- and Who Has Not

While millions of American seniors look forward to relief in their prescription drug costs, they don't realize that passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill will cause the dismantling of the cancer care system as we know it today. Buried deep in the fine print of both versions of the bill are provisions to cut funding for cancer treatment by 30 percent. A group of cancer doctors, nurses and patients from the Northwest are joining thousands of others in Washington, D.C. this week, hoping to convince lawmakers to end the cancer funding cut during Save Cancer Care Advocacy Day, Wednesday, September 17th.

Jean Reikenbach, a cancer patient at Puget Sound Cancer Centers, is traveling to the nation's Capitol to get her point across. "The elderly are the most vulnerable population, and these cuts will cause consequences for those least able to deal with it -- seniors with cancer," according to Reikenbach, who's been in a closely guarded remission but continues to receive monthly treatment.

Those traveling to Washington will be carrying the "Dear Colleague letter," authored by Congressmen and Senators which urges their colleagues to abandon the drastic cuts in cancer reimbursement as a way to fund the prescription drug bill. To date, Washington State Representatives Jay Inslee, Norm Dicks, Brian Baird and George Nethercutt and Senator Maria Cantwell have signed the letters in support of cancer care. Representatives Rick Larsen and Adam Smith have announced their intention to do so. Not signing the letters are Senator Patty Murray, and Congressmembers Jim McDermott and Jennifer Dunn.

When Medicare was enacted in 1965, cancer treatment was delivered in the hospital inpatient setting. As science and medicine progressed, cancer care shifted dramatically to an outpatient setting in the doctor's office -- where over 80 percent of all cancer care is delivered today. This is in large part due to the introduction of new outpatient drugs that significantly reduced the need for inpatient care. Outpatient cancer care proved to be more accessible for the patients and more cost-effective.

The problem is that the current Medicare payment system is still based on 1965 with only limited coverage for the delivery of outpatient drugs and the services associated with them. While Medicare has overpaid oncology practices for chemotherapy drugs, they grossly underpay for all the rest of the practice services and equipment necessary to administer these drugs to cancer patients. Now, provisions in both the House and Senate versions of the prescription drug bill propose to cut the overpayment of chemotherapy drugs without equalizing payments for the practice services and equipment -- amounting to the 30 percent cut. Lawmakers counter that they've raised reimbursement for practice expenses, though in truth, they are only a fraction of what it actually costs to deliver the care that's become the standard today.

The consequences will be dramatic. Cancer experts predict this will close many community-based cancer centers across the country. Oncology nurses and support staff will lose their jobs. Clinical research in community-based clinics -- where over 60 percent of all cancer clinical trials are conducted -- will stop. Doctors will be forced to reduce or turn away Medicare cancer patients, forcing them to seek treatment elsewhere, but hospitals have responded that they have neither the space nor nursing staff to treat such a large number of cancer patients.

Oncologists, nurses and patients from Washington State's community-based cancer centers are making the trip to the nation's Capitol to call attention to these funding cuts. Approximately twenty people will represent Puget Sound Cancer Centers (North Seattle and Edmonds, contact Denise Parkinson, 206-954-2021 cell), Western Washington Medical Group (Everett), Hematology Oncology Northwest (Tacoma) and Cancer Care Northwest (Spokane). Together they will visit lawmakers equipped with valuable industry data, research and perspective with which to convince them that the cuts need to be eliminated or equalized in order to preserve the most convenient, accessible and cost-effective cancer care system in the world.

"Oncologists have spent over 20 years building a community cancer care system that is designed specifically around cancer patients' complex needs -- and it works. So imagine telling a senior weakened by cancer that their treatment may be delayed, they'll have to drive to the next city to receive treatment where their doctors can't be there to monitor their care. For some cancer patients, that will spell the difference between life and death, and that's a fact," according to Dr. Richard McGee, medical oncologist and president of Puget Sound Cancer Centers, Edmonds. "Our real fear is what this will mean to cancer patients across the country. That's what our lawmakers need to think about."

Additional information on Save Cancer Care Advocacy Day can be found at www.Legislink.com and www.savecancercare.org.

Puget Sound Cancer Centers (PSCC) are outpatient community-based cancer centers located in Edmonds and North Seattle. PSCC is one of the single largest medical oncology practices in the State of Washington and is affiliated with US Oncology, the largest community oncology provider group in the country and the largest cancer research platform in the world. PSCC is independently owned and managed by its member doctors.

Editors Note: Contact Denise Parkinson to coordinate all interviews.