Community Oncology Alliance Refutes NBC Nightly News Story 'Cancer Docs Profit From Chemotherapy Drugs'

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 24 Sep 2006 - 0:00 PDT

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The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) registered outrage in a letter to Steve Capus, President, NBC News, regarding the story appearing on NBC Nightly News, September 21, 2006, entitled, 'Cancer Docs Profit from Chemotherapy Drugs' reported by Rehema Ellis. According to Ellis, "The situation begs the ethical question: are they over prescribing? Doctors in other specialties simply write prescriptions. But oncologists make most of their income by buying drugs wholesale and selling them to patients at marked up prices."

In the letter to Capus, Steve Coplon, COA's Executive Director, states "The story was severely biased, one-sided, and misrepresented the facts. It was a damaging affront to the dedicated oncologists, nurses, and staff in community cancer care, the setting that treats 84% of Americans battling cancer. During the week of August 16th, 2006, I was contacted by NBC Nightly News producers to discuss the reality of cancer care delivered in the community setting. Among other areas, I covered the facts on how community cancer clinics are reimbursed and that cancer care is being shifted elsewhere due to problems with the current payment system. This shift is causing delays in treatment, disjointed cancer care, and higher patient costs. I subsequently provided both of them with data on payment shortfalls in an email dated August 24th. Finally, I requested that NBC Nightly News provide some balance to their story and not do the all too typical hatchet job on community oncology."

"Unfortunately, the data provided and my requests were ignored. The story was biased, factually inaccurate, and certainly provided no balance," Coplon adds. "Cancer drugs are not like other prescription medications. They must be administered, typically intravenously over long periods of time, under the supervision of trained medical professionals. This is because chemotherapy and related cancer drugs are potentially highly toxic and can cause medical emergencies and severe adverse events. Cancer drugs, therefore, are not 'sold' to patients.

A typical community cancer clinic is forced to outlay considerable capital, often amounting to tens of millions of dollars, to purchase cancer drugs that are administered by the clinic in a medically-supervised setting. The clinic does not set prices and, therefore, drugs are not 'marked up' by the clinic. Rather, the cost of drugs is set by the pharmaceutical manufacturer and the wholesale distributor. The selling price is dictated by Medicare, which covers approximately 45% of all cancer patients, and private insurers. They establish reimbursement rates that dictate payment for cancer drugs."

NBC Nightly News neglected to note that with recent changes in Medicare reimbursement rates, many of these drugs are actually reimbursed less than cost, especially when considering considerable patient bad debt, which is subsidized by community cancer clinics, not Medicare or private insurers. NBC Nightly News also neglected to note that community cancer clinics subsidize Medicare for 6 months for every drug price increase by manufacturers because there is a 6-month delay in Medicare updating their reimbursement rates. Year to date, there have been over 70 drug price increases, all subsidized by community cancer clinics.

COA has asked NBC to run a counter story on Nightly News that corrects the inaccuracies and provides proper balance.

Community Oncology Alliance
http://communityoncology.org/