Thursday, June 12, 2008

Medicare Updates its List of Recognized Sources to Help Make Coverage Decisions for Anti-Cancer Chemotherapy Drugs

The following information is provided by NHIC/Medicare.

A compendium is a comprehensive listing of Food & Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs and biologicals or of a specific subset of drugs and biologicals. Compendia are used to improve the effectiveness and quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries by developing and disseminating current, authoritative information on cancer therapies to clinicians, patients and other decision makers.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will now recognize the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Drugs & Biologics Compendium as an additional source of information in determining which drugs should be covered under Medicare Part B when used to treat patients undergoing cancer treatment through chemotherapy. CMS will no longer use the now obsolete American Medical Association Drug Evaluations (AMA-DE) compendium as a source for making these decisions. Both of these changes will be reflected in CMS’ Medicare Benefit Policy Manual.

The Compendia List and related CMS Press Release can be found on the CMS website at:

Compendia List: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/CoverageGenInfo/02_compendia.asp

CMS Press Release Link: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=3145&

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