The New York Times reported today (in the Business section) that Medicare is going to reduce its reimbursement rate for two successful cancer drugs to such a degree that hospitals will stop offering the drugs for treatment-- AND, due to federal rules, hospitals aren't allowed to administer a drug to ANY patient if they can't give it to Medicare patients.
These drugs have been incredibly successful in creating long-term remission for non-Hodgkins lymphoma patients when other treatments have failed. Medicare says hospitals are charging too much to buy and administer the drugs.
I wonder just how Medicare figured out the cost of a human life?
No comments:
Post a Comment