How Medicare's payment cuts for cancer chemotherapy drugs changed patterns of treatment.
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, enacted in 2003, substantially reduced payment rates for chemotherapy drugs administered on an outpatient basis starting in January 2005. We assessed how these reductions affected the likelihood and setting of chemotherapy treatment for Medicare beneficiaries with newly diagnosed lung cancer, as well as the types of agents they received. Contrary to concerns about access, we found that the changes actually increased the likelihood that lung cancer patients received chemotherapy. The type of chemotherapy agents administered also changed. Physicians switched from dispensing the drugs that experienced the largest cuts in profitability, carboplatin and paclitaxel, to other high-margin drugs, like docetaxel. We do not know what the effect was on cancer patients, but these changes may have offset some of the savings projected from passage of the legislation. The ultimate message is that payment reforms have real consequences and should be undertaken with caution.
Jacobson
Mireille
M
RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA. mjacobso@rand.org
Earle
Craig C
CC
Price
Mary
M
Newhouse
Joseph P
JP
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000191:economics* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003363:Cost Control; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000592:standards; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D054524:Medicare Part D / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005791:Patient Care / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States
D000970:Antineoplastic Agents