From the Executive Director

The United States has the best cancer care in the world. That’s not just our opinion. It is
proven by actual survival rates. According to the American Cancer Society, 4,000
Americans are diagnosed with cancer every day. Community oncologists treat 84% of
these patients. Unfortunately, as a country we are faced with a healthcare crisis that is
impacting the quality of cancer care available to patients.

Medicare covers about half of all cancer care. It is the single largest payer of cancer care
and influences how private insurance companies pay for cancer care. Six years ago the
government changed the way that Medicare pays for cancer care. As a result, services
and cancer drugs we provide are underpaid, and in some cases, not paid at all. For
example, the government does not pay for the essential treatment plan developed for
every cancer patient. Further cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates will force community
oncologists to further subsidize the cost of cancer care. This cost is ultimately passed on
to patients, many of whom will forgo treatment or portions of their treatment due to their
inability to pay.

In Washington, some healthcare reform initiatives are proposing to create a “public”
insurance option that is based on Medicare payment rates. Unfortunately, putting more
people on insurance based on Medicare payment rates will force practices to cut staff
and eventually close their doors. This is especially true as the government is now
proposing to cut payments for the administration of life-saving cancer drugs by over
20%.

President Obama has said repeatedly that we need to build on what is working with our
health care system and fix what is broken. That means we need to continue to improve
our ability to fight cancer and fix the broken government payment system. We need to
fix cancer care, not break it further.

Our practice is working in cooperation with others across the country not just to
complain, but to provide solutions to the Congress and the President.
Here is what you can do now.

Please call, fax, and email our Representatives and Senators in the Congress. Express
a simple message — Fix Cancer Care; Don’t Break It Further. In general, urge them
to help stop the government’s new cuts to cancer care and to not use Medicare payment
rates for the basis of any new public insurance plan. More specifically, make the
following points:

• Ask our Representatives to also sign onto H.R. 1392, which would make
payments for cancer drugs more realistic by correcting a technical flaw with their
calculations, and to include it in health care reform legislation.

• Ask our Senators to sign onto to S. 1221, which is an identical bill in the Senate
to H.R. 1392, and to sponsor an identical bill to H.R. 2872 in the Senate — and
to include both in health care reform legislation.

Almost every one of us is or will be touched by cancer in some way. Cancer patients are
our family, our friends, our co-workers and ourselves. This is an issue that impacts all of
us so we must be actively engaged in the conversation.