Nicolas Ferreyro reflects on a study about CMS decision to limit the delivery of oral cancer medications

Nicolas Ferreyros, Managing Director at Community Oncology Alliance, posted on LinkedIn:

“A new study presented last week finds that the recent CMS decision to limit the delivery of oral cancer medications “imposes a substantial burden” on patients, particularly those living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Key quote: “The removal of flexibilities related to home prescription delivery is anticipated to impose a substantial burden on Texas-based patients by compelling many individuals to undertake long journeys to obtain essential cancer medications.”

The study was presented at ASCO Quality Care Symposium last week. It identified a total of 970 patients who received home-delivered prescriptions under traditional Medicare Part D.
– Of these patients, 71% (687) resided within a 20-mile radius of the nearest clinic, while 22% (213) lived between 20 and 50 miles away.
– Furthermore, 7% (70) of patients lived more than 50 miles from the closest clinic, and 60 addresses could not be properly matched to the [area deprivation index] ADI database [which is a measure of a neighborhoods by socioeconomic disadvantage].
– When considering the ADI rankings, 40% of patients living within 20 miles of the clinic faced significant risks of disparity, a figure that rose to 67% for those residing 20-50 miles away and 61% for individuals living more than 50 miles from the clinic.

Kudos to Lalan Wilfong, Wendy Hemmen, Neal Dave, Erica Feinberg, Gury Doshi with Texas Oncology, The US Oncology Network for the important and extremely timely research.”

For the article click here.
Source: Nicolas Ferreyros/LinkedIn