Spokane

Medicare reform worries cancer doctors

Carla K. Johnson
Staff writer

Medicare recipient William Spicer is 84 and doesn't take any prescription drugs, other than the chemotherapy he started Tuesday.

"I would hate to see a major reduction in Medicare funding for cancer care," says Spicer, a South Hill resident who has lived with colon cancer 10 years. He receives chemotherapy at a Cancer Care Northwest office.

Access to that care is threatened by the Medicare reform bills, cancer doctors say. They say the proposed Medicare drug benefit is being financed on their backs through reduced reimbursements (Senate bill) and a redesign of the cancer drug delivery system that would reduce their margins (House bill).

The House bill would require private companies such as distributors, specialty pharmacies and pharmacy benefits managers to bid for contracts to supply cancer drugs to Medicare. Doctors then would write prescriptions to the government-approved vendors. Now, the doctors are able to make some profit by negotiating their own prices.

Cancer patients would notice changes if the cuts occur, doctors say. The cancer doctors would be forced to scale back support such as nurses, social service workers and financial counselors who work with patients, they say.

Nationally, cancer doctors say they already lose $148 million a year by treating Medicare patients because of underfunding.

"If it costs more to provide the service than you get, then the service is going to go away," says Dr. Bruce Cutter, CEO of Cancer Care Northwest.

Rep. George Nethercutt co-sponsored a bill, which did not pass, that he said would have fixed the problem. It's now a problem for the House-Senate conference committee, which is reconciling differences in the two bills

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