Cancer Clinics Turn Away Medicare Patients as Feds Cut Payments
Blame the "sequester" of course, despite increased D.C. spending
Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.
Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially.
Patients at these clinics would need to seek treatment elsewhere, such as at hospitals that might not have the capacity to accommodate them.
"If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we'd be out of business in six months to a year," said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York. "The drugs we're going to lose money on we're not going to administer right now."
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Well it is something really disappointing that clinics are not able to manage expenses of cancer patients and reason behind this is reduced funding for Medicare patients. If it continue to happen then it will be biggest concern for people, clinics as well as for government. Government must look after this issue and need to fix it as soon as possible or look for middle way.