Dr. Patel Discusses the Cancer Drug Coverage Parity Act

Kavita Patel, MD, MS, policy analyst, Brookings Institution, discusses the Cancer Drug Coverage Parity Act.

The Cancer Drug Coverage Parity Act requires health plans to provide anticancer medications without changing or replacing benefits to increase out-of-pocket costs, reclassifying benefits to increase costs, or applying more restrictive limitations to oral medications—patient administered—than to intravenous or injected medications—physician administered—as per the bill presented to Congress by Leonard Lance on June 11, 2015.

As with a lot of legislation, this act will most likely never reach the President’s desk, says Patel. However, it is still important, she adds, because it sends a signal throughout Washington, DC that says that the conversation around cancer drugs is continuous, and the needs of patients with cancer are a different, specific issue within healthcare.