WASHINGTON, D.C. – October 4, 2023 – Earlier this week, 22 cancer patient and caregiver advocacy groups, including the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) offering recommendations on how the agency should consider pharmaceutical therapeutic alternatives to selected oncology drugs for 2026 Medicare plans as they head into the negotiation process laid out in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Cancer is not just one disease; it is hundreds of diseases. As such, the groups, representing millions of cancer patients, encourage CMS to implement the negotiation of selected drugs in a way that encompasses the many unique oncology considerations and suggest CMS consider real-world evidence and patient experience data to determine the comparative effectiveness.
The following is a list of groups that signed the letter: American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Association of Community Cancer Centers, Brem Foundation to Defeat Breast Cancer, Cancer Help Desk, CancerCare, Caregiver Action Network, CLL Society, Colon Cancer Coalition, Color of Crohn’s and Chronic Illness, Fight Colorectal Cancer, FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, Global Colon Cancer, Association HealthTree, Foundation Health Men Inc., LUNGevity Foundation, Melanoma Research Foundation, National Brain Tumor Society, Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, Sharsheret | The Jewish Breast & Ovarian Cancer Community, St Baldrick's Foundation and Support For People With Oral And Head And Neck Cancer (SPOHNC) ZERO Prostate Cancer.