A newly published article in JAMA Oncology has reported hypothetical costs savings to Medicare of $320 million over a 3-year time frame if men of > 70 years with low-risk prostate cancer are simply “observed” as opposed being given immediate treated. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Diagnosis, Living with Prostate Cancer, Management, Risk | Tagged: conservative, cost, Management, Medicare, observation, saving | Leave a comment »
The population-based rate of Medicare patients getting treatment for prostate cancer dropped by 42 percent from 2007 to 2012 … but this drop did not occur in patients who had a high risk of dying from a cause other than prostate cancer within 10 years, who are arguably among those who least need immediate treatment for prostate cancer (and especially for low-risk forms of prostate cancer). … READ MORE …
Filed under: Diagnosis, Living with Prostate Cancer, Management, Risk, Treatment | Tagged: change, Diagnosis, Management, Medicare, risk, Treatment | 1 Comment »
The prostate cancer patient community should be aware of an “op-ed” in today’s New York Times by Drs. Gilbert Welch and Peter Albertsen arguing that Medicare should continue to let individual physicians make their own decisions about the use of the PSA test for risk of prostate cancer. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Diagnosis, Risk | Tagged: cost, decision, Medicare, PSA, risk, screening, testing | 16 Comments »
Apparently our friends at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have misunderstood the details of the D recommendation about PSA screening for prostate cancer issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in 2012, … READ MORE …
Filed under: Diagnosis, Risk | Tagged: CMS, Medicare, policy, PSA, screening | 4 Comments »
… You are going to need to be cautious in using this new tool, as explained below. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Diagnosis, Living with Prostate Cancer, Management, Risk, Treatment | Tagged: complication, Medicare, rate, surgeon | 9 Comments »
On April 29 this year, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced a decision to eliminate all PSA data from their current data files because of apparent inaccuracies in the ways that such data had been accumulated over time and administered. The full ramifications of this are — as yet — unclear. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: data, Medicare, National Cancer Institute, PSA, SEER | Leave a comment »
It appears as though, here in the USA, the House of Representatives has decided to block coverage of vacuum erectile devices (VEDs, sometimes known as “penis pumps”) for Medicare patients. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Living with Prostate Cancer | Tagged: coverage, device, erectile, Medicare, vacuum, VED | 7 Comments »
A poster by Schroeck et al. — to be presented on May 20 at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) — presents the latest set of data suggesting that “best care” does not lead to appropriate outcomes quality for men receiving standard forms of treatment for localized prostate cancer. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Diagnosis, Living with Prostate Cancer, Management, Risk, Treatment | Tagged: Management, Medicare, outcomes, quality, standards, Treatment | 7 Comments »
A recent article in Cancer has stimulated media coverage of the appropriate role of PSA testing in men of > 70 years of age and costs covered by Medicare for PSA tests in men over this age. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Diagnosis, Risk | Tagged: cost, Medicare, PSA, test, use | 4 Comments »
So there’s a lot of media coverage this morning about an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggesting that, here in the USA, more men with low-risk forms of localized prostate cancer are getting more expensive types of treatment for their cancer (and that much of this treatment may be of dubious value). … READ MORE …
Filed under: Diagnosis, Living with Prostate Cancer, Management, Risk, Treatment, Uncategorized | Tagged: low risk, Medicare, mortality, over-treatment | 13 Comments »
A new study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has provided data regarding the survival of men of 65 years and older diagnosed with and treated for selected cancers within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system as compared to similar men treated under the fee-for-service Medicare system. This study has received a lot of media coverage. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Diagnosis, Living with Prostate Cancer, Management, Risk, Treatment | Tagged: comparison, fee for service, Medicare, survival, Veterans Administration | Leave a comment »
Sometimes it is difficult to know what to make of data from even the most reputable institutions. This appears to be the case for a recent study from a Harvard research team. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Living with Prostate Cancer | Tagged: cancer, cost, drug coverage, Medicare, non-adherence | Leave a comment »
In a new paper just published on-line in the Journal of Urology, Kapoor et al. have provided data on trends in the utilization of various major types of treatment for the management of localized prostate cancer among Medicare beneficiaries in the USA between 2006 and 2008. … READ MORE …
Filed under: Management, Treatment | Tagged: beneficiary, cryotherapy, Medicare, radiation, surgery, Treatment, utilization | Leave a comment »
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed yesterday that there is sufficient and adequate evidence to conclude that the use of autologous cellular immunotherapy treatment — sipuleucel-T (Provenge®) — improves health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries … READ MORE …
Filed under: Management, Treatment | Tagged: CMS, coverage, Medicare, Provenge, sipuleucel-T | Leave a comment »
Physicians and researchers on a panel advising the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) gave Provenge® a favorable vote at a “National Coverage Analysis” hearing yesterday in Washington, DC. You could almost hear the world of prostate cancer survivors, their physicians, Dendreon investors, and other drug development companies breathe a sigh of relief! … READ MORE …
Filed under: Living with Prostate Cancer, Management, Treatment | Tagged: coverage, Medicare, Provenge, sipuleucel-T | 2 Comments »
THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK 