ACS CAN advocates for policies that provide access to treatments and services people with cancer need for their care - including those who may be newly diagnosed, in active treatment and cancer survivors.
Our latest survey finds that cancer patients and survivors would be less likely to stay current with preventive care, including recommended cancer screenings, if the provision requiring these services be covered at no cost were repealed. This survey also explores the challenges of limited provider networks and the need for patient navigation.
Annual Medicaid Renewals are back. During the pandemic, Congress changed the rules to allow for continuous coverage protections for Medicaid enrollees. This helped people keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll during a tough and uncertain time in our country.
What does unwinding continuous coverage have to do with Medicaid expansion?
During the pandemic, Congress put in place continuous coverage protections to ensure that Medicaid enrollees were able to keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll.
What does unwinding continuous coverage have to do with Medicaid expansion?
During the pandemic, Congress put in place continuous coverage protections to ensure that Medicaid enrollees were able to keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll.
What does unwinding continuous coverage have to do with Medicaid expansion?
During the pandemic, Congress put in place continuous coverage protections to ensure that Medicaid enrollees were able to keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll.
What does unwinding continuous coverage have to do with Medicaid expansion?
During the pandemic, Congress put in place continuous coverage protections to ensure that Medicaid enrollees were able to keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll.
What does unwinding continuous coverage have to do with Medicaid expansion?
During the pandemic, Congress put in place continuous coverage protections to ensure that Medicaid enrollees were able to keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll.
What does unwinding continuous coverage have to do with Medicaid expansion?
During the pandemic, Congress put in place continuous coverage protections to ensure that Medicaid enrollees were able to keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll.
What does unwinding continuous coverage have to do with Medicaid expansion?
During the pandemic, Congress put in place continuous coverage protections to ensure that Medicaid enrollees were able to keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll.
Prescription drug costs are a significant burden on cancer patients and survivors, sometimes even leading patients to miss or delay taking prescribed medications. The latest Survivor Views survey explores the role copay assistance programs can play in reducing this burden, and also addresses patient navigation and digital therapeutics.
A majority of cancer patients and survivors struggle to afford cancer care and over 80% have had to make financial sacrifices to cover their health care expenses. This survey also reveals ways that affordability concerns can negatively impact care and treatment, and explores issues related to prescription drug coverage and pain management options.
Many cancer patients take multiple drugs as part of their treatment – often for many months or years. While drugs are not the only costly part of cancer treatment, finding ways to reduce these costs for patients and payers will significantly reduce the overall cost burden of cancer.
This Survivor Views survey examined access to and affordability of cancer care. Survivors report insurance-related barriers to obtaining prescriptions, and lower-income respondents in particular have difficulty affording them. 24% of respondents have received a surprise medical bill, 60% of which were more than $500.
Biological drugs, commonly referred to as biologics, are a class of drugs that are produced using a living system, such as a microorganism, plant cell, or animal cell. Like all drugs, biologics are regulated by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
This ACS CAN chartbook provides cancer-specific data related to Medicare, including basic information about the program, a discussion of its components, characteristics of enrollees, coverage of services – specifically those related to prevention and screening – program expenditures and enrollees
The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) along with partners appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Patient Navigation provisions of CY2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.
ACS CAN submitted comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau strongly supporting the proposal to prohibit medical debt from appearing on credit reports.
Medical debt impacts many people with cancer, their caregivers and their families. This factsheet details this impact and explores policy solutions to prevent medical debt and minimize its impact on health, quality of life and financial health.
Our latest survey finds that about half of cancer patients and survivors (49%) have incurred medical debt to pay for their cancer care and another 13% expect to incur medical debt as they begin or continue their treatment. Nearly all of those (98%) had health care coverage at the time they accumulated medical debt. This survey also explores the broad health and financial implications of medical debt, how medical debt deepens inequites, and the alarming rate of cancer related medical debt among younger respondents with early diagnoses.
Our latest survey finds that protecting no-cost screenings and preventive care and reducing the burden of medical debt are the most impotant priorities for cancer patients and survivors. This survey also explores the impacts of cancer on food and nutrition insecurity, with impacts felt across income groups and coverage levels.
ACS CAN partnered with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and RIP Medical Debt to conduct a national survey on the impacts of medical debt and high health care costs. Read the full results.
ACS CAN teamed up with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and RIP Medical Debt to conduct a national survey on the impacts of medical debt and high health care costs. Read a summary of the results.
Short-term limited duration (STLD) insurance plans do not provide the kind of comprehensive insurance coverage cancer patients need. These plans were designed only as temporary coverage and are not subject to the same Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements as other health insurance products on the market. As a result, an enrollee who was attracted to the plan’s lower premiums may find – if they are diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer – that the plan does not cover all of their necessary cancer treatments. In these cases, the consumer can be left with catastrophic costs.
Many patients with complex diseases like cancer find it difficult to afford their treatments – even when they have health insurance. Current law establishes a limit on what most private insurance plans can require enrollees to pay in out-of-pocket costs. These limits protect patients from extremely high costs and are essential to any health care system that works for cancer patients and survivors.
ACS CAN submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regarding its 2022 Request for Information on Access to Coverage and Care in Medicaid & CHIP. Our comments address suggested improvements in Medicaid enrollment and eligibility determination, transitions of coverage, national standards for access to care, and the eventual end of the public health emergency and continuous coverage provisions.
ACS CAN submitted comments in support of the renewal of Oregon's 1115 Medicaid waiver, including the state's proposal of continuous coverage provisions for children and adults. However, ACS CAN strongly objects to the state's proposal to limit Medicaid coverage of drugs approved through the accelerated approval process, and urges CMS to reject this part of the waiver request.
An increasing number of states are seeking greater flexibility in administering their Medicaid programs. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) give states the opportunity to test innovative or alternative approaches to providing health care coverage to their Medicaid populations through Section 1115 Research and Demonstration Waivers (otherwise known as "1115 waivers"). States must demonstrate that their waivers promote the objectives of the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) and CMS must use general criteria to determine whether the objectives of the Medicaid/CHIP programs are met.
