United Health Care Program to Cut Individualized Treatmnts

UnitedHealthcare plans to announce on Wednesday a one-year project with five
oncology practices, offering doctors an additional fee. The new fee is meant
to encourage doctors to follow standard treatments rather than opting too
often for individualized and unproven courses of therapy, which can include
the most expensive drug combinations. By proposing a different type of
payment structure, companies hope to lower doctors' dependence on a system
that generates substantial sums for cancer specialists who routinely favor
top-of-the line treatments.

Regional insurers in some states, including California, Washington and
Pennsylvania, are negotiating similar limits with doctors and their clinics.
WellPoint, another large insurer, is developing a way of paying oncologists
to coordinate and manage patient care.

By almost any measure, cancer treatments can be exorbitantly expensive.
Cancer care in the United States costs almost $100 billion a year, and
medical bills for the average patient on chemotherapy can top $100,000 a
year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/health/policy/20cancer.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

What does this mean for forward movement with new treatments once they are
approved? Also are they considering anything other than cost? What about
QOL? Will this have an impact on the development of new treatments?

Kathy



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