Welcome to the New Mexico Society of Clinical Oncology
NMSCO Opposes Local Oral vs. IV Coverage Policy
One
of the MAC carriers for Medicare, (Northeast, NGS) has elected to not cover IV
anti- emetics. Their plan is to have patients fill an Rx for oral anti-emetics,
which they can then take before coming to the office for IV chemotherapy.
NMSCO opposes this policy, and is going to contact its MAC to ask that the current policy is left alone. For cancer chemotherapy, the choice of
anti-emetic drug and route of administration should be left to the oncologist,
and that coverage should be available for all options.
US Oncology and ASCO have asked CMS to rescind the policy of NGS because it is inconsistent with national Medicare policy.
The 2009 New Mexico Legislature is in session January
20 – March 21. Please see the Legislative Page for a link to weekly
updates.
The NM CAC Advisory committee meeting was held on Feb. 26,
2009 at the NMMS offices. Dr. Charles
Haley, the Trailblazer MAC medical director was there. The CAC meeting had very little that was
specific to Hematology/Oncology, however there were a number of items of
general interest.
Visit the Legislative Update page to read letters sent to Senators Domenici and Bingaman and Representative Wilson regarding ESAs. Also posted is Dr. Duncan's ongoing correspondence exchange with Congresswoman Heather Wilson, including his request on behalf of NMSCO for Rep. Wilson to support HR 4098.
Latest News from ASCO
New Mexico Medical Society (NMSCO) 7770 Jefferson NE, Suite 400 Albuquerque, NM 87109 Tel: 505-828-0237 Fax: 505-828-0336
