National Policy Resources—Local Advocacy Results

As cancer care professionals who experience the challenges of providing quality cancer care first-hand, IOS members are well positioned to educate decision-makers on how coverage and reimbursement issues affect community oncology. State and federal legislation can have a significant impact on the financial viability of local cancer programs, which is why it's so important that our members make their voices heard.

In an effort to provide resources needed to effectively advocate on the issues that are important to them, our redesigned advocacy webpage features activity from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), national healthcare coverage through the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC), local news articles and webinars, and more.

We want to hear from you! If there is a specific piece of legislation you want to know more about, an important resource we're missing, or if you want to get more involved, please contact us!

State Advocacy

House Unanimously Votes to Curb Non-Medical Switching of Prescriptions

The Iowa House has unanimously voted to set new rules to prevent prescription drug switches that are not done for medical reasons. Representative Gary Mohr of Bettendorf said this is to protect patients from being denied coverage or being required to accept higher co-pays in the middle of a health plan’s year.

Do you have a patient that has experienced this challenge? We would like to speak with you and/or the patient. Our goal is to share as many of these stories with Iowa legislators as we can. We can help put the message together and, if you’re interested, set up a meeting with your legislator. To participate, please contact Lu Anne Bankert at lbankert@accc-cancer.org by Thursday, March 23, 2023.

Federal Advocacy

IOS Joins Coalition Letter Urging Addition of the Cures 2.0 Concept Paper Title IV Provisions in the Next COVID-19 Relief Package

The Iowa Oncology Society (IOS) joined in a coalition letter to congressional leadership urging that Congress include the 21st Century Cures 2.0 concept paper, recently released by Representatives Diana DeGette and Fred Upton in upcoming legislation to further address the COVID-19 public health crisis. Specifically the letter urges leadership to include policy to provide Medicaid coverage of the routine care costs of clinical trials participation for patients with life-threatening conditions in every state. This critical protection is championed by Representatives Ben Ray Luján and Gus Bilirakis in the Clinical Treatment Act (H.R. 913).

COVID-19 Clinical Trials Coalition Letter

FROM THE ACCCBUZZ BLOG

An Update on Healthcare Legislation at the State Level
By Christian G. Downs, MHA, JD
March 22, 2023
If you are looking for legislative action, look no further than your state's legislatures. Most—if not all—states have had issues relating to oncology care and healthcare in general come up during their 2023 sessions.
ACCC Announces its 2023 Advocacy Agenda
March 07, 2023
For 2023, ACCC members have identified four core areas of focus (e.g., reimbursement, utilization management, provider-patient choice), among a larger set of issues and concerns, that the association will be supporting this year.
ACCC Recognizes National Caregivers Day: Analyzing a Mental Health Crisis
February 17, 2023
Today is National Caregivers Day, and ACCCBuzz analyzes the current mental health crisis that is affecting the caregivers of loved ones everywhere.

Advocacy In the News

CMMI Adds New Flexibilities & Adjustments to Oncology Care Model

On Wednesday, June 3, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced that, in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), CMMI is providing new flexibilities and adjustments to current and future Innovation Center models. The announcement included the following changes specifically for Oncology Care Model (OCM).

Payment Methodology:

Option for OCM practices to elect to forgo upside and downside risk for performance periods affected by the PHE.

For OCM practices that remain in one- or two-sided risk for the performance periods affected by the PHE, remove COVID-19 episodes from reconciliation for those performance periods.

Quality Reporting:
-Make the following optional for the affected performance periods:

Aggregate-level reporting of quality measures
Beneficiary-level reporting of clinical and staging data

-Remove the requirement for cost and resource utilization reporting and practice transformation plan reporting in July/August 2020.

Timeline: Extend model for 1 year through June 2022.
The CMS Innovation Center will host a call on Friday, June 5, 2020, from 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET to provide an overview of the Oncology Care Model adjustments and flexibilities and answer your questions.