Policy

It was the late C. Everett Koop, a former U.S. surgeon general, who once famously said: Drugs don't work in patients who don't take them. That's a simple way to look at a costly and complex problem - medication non-adherence - where the failure to take drugs on time in the dosages prescribed is both dangerous for patients and costly to the health care system.

Washington state won't pay for medical procedures that are unsafe, unproven or cost too much. Why can't Medicare do that?

Panelists agreed that the cost of the new agents discussed to treat melanoma will be a challenge, just as the cost of healthcare as a whole in the United States is a major challenge.

Dr Fendrick asked panelists what they think about the idea of centers of excellence for specific cancers and an evidence-based steerage.

It's very, very complex to try to envision how you would come up with a single payment for an episode and not have a thousand different types of episodes in order to capture the heterogeneity of these diseases and the cost, said Dr Malin when asked to discuss the bundled payment method in oncology.

In this portion of the panel discussion, Dr Fendrick asked the panel whether or not they have noticed cost-related lack of access or nonadherence with the new agents being discussed.

Dr Weber said that despite all of the newer agents in development, the NCCN still offers comprehensive guidelines for the treatment of melanoma.

Dr Ribas opened this segment by discussing the new immunotherapy agents used in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Specifically, he discussed the agents vemurafenib (Zelboraf), dabrafenib (Taflinar), and trametinib (Mekinist).

Panel moderator and AJMC co-editor-in-chief Dr Mark Fendrick introduced panelists Jennifer Malin, MD, PhD, manager and medical director of oncology, WellPoint; Jeffrey Weber, MD, PhD, senior member, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center Director, Donald A. Adam Comprehensive Melanoma Research Center; and Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA.

In Miami, a new healthcare model - the ACO - rewards physicians for patient health, controlling costs

Consolidation reduces competition in markets and gives hospitals more leverage to raise prices.

The head of a major ObamaCare enrollment group urged Texans to embrace their new benefits under healthcare reform as a means to stay "healthy and financially secure."