• Medicare Fee Schedule
  October 30, 2009: CMS issued its 2010 physician fee schedule today. Based on ASCO’s preliminary analysis, it appears as of now the 2010 impact will be a 1 percent reduction for oncology services. CMS has indicated that this will be part of an overall 6 percent reduction to be phased in over four years.

• NIH Appropriations
  October 23, 2009: The House Appropriations Committee is drafting a continuing resolution, or “CR,” to keep much of the federal government running past the end of October at FY 2009 levels. The current CR expires October 31. Congress has passed 4 of the 12 annual spending bills, but has not yet passed legislation to fund the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Congress is expected to pass and the President is expected to sign the CR.

• End-of-Life Care
  August 14, 2009: CNN.com published a commentary written by ASCO President Douglas Blayney, MD, and Oncology Nursing Society President Brenda Nevidjon, RN, addressing end-of-life care provisions in health care reform legislation.

• ASP Legislation
  July 15, 2009: ASCO supports legislation in the House and Senate that would remove the prompt pay discounts extended to drug wholesalers from the calculation of the manufacturers Average Sales Price (ASP). Access talking points that you can use to urge your Member of Congress to support this legislation.

October 9, 2009: As the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate reconvened September 8, abolishing proposed cuts to the Medicare physician fee schedule remains at the top of ASCO's agenda.

On September 10, fifty-five Members of Congress signed a letter to Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, urging the Agency to address the serious flaws in the survey used to determine the proposed cuts to oncology and cardiology before implementing any changes in payment for 2010.

ASCO submitted comments to CMS outlining the flaws with the proposed fee schedule. ASCO is continuing to call on Congress and the Administration to withdraw the proposed 6 percent cut to oncology in the Medicare physician fee schedule, and WE NEED YOUR HELP IN THIS EFFORT. Please call or write your Representative and ask him or her to contact CMS and express concern with these proposed cuts. ASCO prepared these talking points for guidance.

October 13, 2009: The Senate Finance Committee approved the America’s Healthy Future Act, legislation to reform the health care system introduced in mid-September by Finance Committee Chair Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) by a vote of 14 to 9. Senate Leadership will merge this bill with S. 1679, the Affordable Health Choices Act, passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee earlier this year. The House is also working to merge its health reform legislation, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200), as passed in the Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor committees.

• ASCO communications to Congress and CMS on Medicare issues
  
  
• Cancer Policy Today

• U.S. Budget Watch report: "Evaluating Health Care Plans: An Analysis of the Short- and Long-Term Fiscal Implications of Reform Plans"

• The New England Journal of Medicine: Health Care Reform 2009

• Kaiser Family Foundation Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals

• Report: Improving Medical Decisions Through Comparative Effectiveness Research: Cancer as a Case Study

• White House Health Insurance Reform Reality Check Web site