KCCure has joined with 239 other advocacy organizations asking Congress and CMS to reconsider changes allowing Medicare Advantage plans to implement a new policy that could negatively impact kidney cancer patients covered by Medicare.
Step therapy – also known as “fail first” policies limit options for patients and their physicians by forcing patients to first try treatments based on cost rather than physician recommendation.
Today, advanced kidney cancer patients have a remarkable number of new therapies to choose from. However we still lack the ability to clearly define which treatment will work for which patient. Multiple factors go into treatment decisions, in addition to efficacy, patients also have to consider issues related to quality of life. Cancer patients should never be forced to forgo efficacy in treatment or sacrifice quality of life in the name of cost-cutting.
Kidney cancer is most often found in patients over the age of 60 and many of these individuals are dependent on Medicare coverage and could be negatively impacted by these changes. We urge Congress to protect kidney cancer patients by working with CMS to find alternative solutions that use evidence-based guidelines to reduce costs rather than implementing one-size fits all policies that sacrifice the health of patients and undermine the promise that Medicare represents for so many individuals.
Full text of the letter as well as the entire list of signatories can be found here.
