American doctors rarely used to let costs factor into their treatment decisions. But rising prices -- some cancer drugs now cost more than $100,000 a year -- are dramatically changing that ethos in the field of oncology. Money issues are now disrupting relationships with patients, causing doctors to go into debt and threatening to interfere with treatment options.
(..)
Driving the problem is a new generation of drugs -- including Avastin from Genentech Inc. and Erbitux from ImClone Systems Inc. -- that are transforming cancer care, providing oncologists with the first new options in decades for desperately ill patients. But several months of treatment on these drugs can equal the down payment on a home or a child's college tuition.
(..)
The average wholesale cost for a course of Avastin to treat one type of lung cancer, for example, is $56,000, according to Genentech. It can take 90 days to be reimbursed by Medicare or private insurance plans and even longer for patients to hand over their co-pays. Assuming insurance does cover a course of Avastin, a 20% co-pay comes to $11,200.
Oncologists say this is forcing them into new and nerve-racking territory: weighing costs alongside a drug's potential effectiveness.
(..)
John P. Whitecar Jr., an oncologist in Columbus, Miss., says 89% of his cancer patients are on government insurance. He has watched his income plunge 75% in the past three years because of rising treatment costs and declining reimbursements. He says he's borrowed money to keep his office afloat, and trimmed staff through attrition. Recently, he began sending patients whose health plans reimburse him less than his costs across the street to the local hospital for their chemotherapy infusions.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment