How Medicare is Gambling with Cancer Care

Medicare announced in February 2016 that it is going to create a “demo project” that can randomize how cancer doctors are paid depending on what ZIP code they are in. (If you’re curious, or unfamiliar with how Medicare payment for cancer care works, I explain it as a post-script to this article.*)

If this demo project goes through, doctors in certain ZIP codes are likely to receive massive cuts to the payments they get for providing cancer care. As a result, where patients get treatment might start to dictate how much treatment they get, or even whether they get certain medications at all.Medicare claims this will lower costs. I explain why it probably won’t, and why this is a capricious gamble with the health of cancer patients.

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