The global death toll from cancer rose to 8.2 million in 2012 with sharp rises in breast cancer as the disease tightened its grip in developing nations struggling to treat an illness driven by Western lifestyles.
Hospitals struggling with oncology white bagging. White bagging effectively takes providers out of the business of buying and billing for cancer drugs.
Patient advocacy groups have made available a cancer insurance checklist tool to help cancer patients decide which is the most appropriate health plan for them when shopping for coverage in the new health insurance exchanges.
Cancer drug shortage continues. bit.ly/1dSjv3B JNJ said a dispute with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH over an agreement to produce the cancer drug Doxil may create a year-long shortage of the medicine.
In the 11 months to July 31, 2013, the FDA approved 11 new anticancer drugs. Even with the advances in cancer research, it is projected that more than 1.6 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year.
If the Knight Cancer Institute can raise $500 million over the next two years, Nike’s Phil Knight has pledged to match it, kickstarting a 10-year, $1 billion cancer research initiative.
Oncologists in the dark about Obamacare. With several key provisions of the ACA set to take effect on Jan. 1, it is still difficult to predict exactly how it will affect the treatment of cancer, a panel of policy experts told oncologists at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
Hospitals and health systems should consider forming “virtual” cancer centers as less capital-intensive alternatives in an era when patients, providers and insurers are demanding increased coordination of cancer care services but the costs of establishing freestanding cancer centers run in the multimillion-dollar range, said presenters at the Association of Community Cancer Centers’ national meeting.
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