Dear Editor,We are writing to clarify a few points in your Oct. 2 article, “CMS to Trim Spending on Diagnostic Lab Tests,” as it mistakenly intertwines two issues.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued updated pricing determinations for the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule, which reversed a payment cut for the Oncotype DX breast cancer test.
If Congress passes another year-long, flat-funding resolution, the effect on NIH “would be simply devastating,” Director Francis Collins told a Senate appropriations subcommittee during a hearing Oct. 7.
CT colonography and stool DNA failed to get on the list of preferred tools for screening for colorectal cancer. A draft guideline from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released Oct. 6 calls for using one of three strategies: Fecal immunochemical test or high-sensitivity guaiac-based fecal occult blood test every year; Flexible sigmoidoscopy every ten... […]
Congress passed a continuing resolution Sept. 30—averting a shutdown—that will fund the federal government at current levels through Dec. 11.Funding for both NIH and NCI dipped slightly as part of a 0.21 percent cut to all non-defense discretionary agencies.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force published a viewpoint in the Journal of the American Medical Association to clarify how their recommendations are linked to the Affordable Care Act coverage mandate—and how they believe clinicians, payers, and the public should interpret their recommendations.
A combination of two Bristol-Myers Squibb immuno-oncology agents—Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab)—received an accelerated approval for the treatment of patients with BRAF V600 wild-type unresectable or metastatic melanoma.
Yesterday, two Medicare administrative contractors—National Government Services and Cahaba Government Benefit Administrators—released draft local coverage determinations for next generation sequencing in advanced lung cancer.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services appear to be executing a two-step strategy to shrink the $8 billion annual price tag of clinical diagnostic laboratory tests.
As congressional leaders discuss potential ways to avert a government shutdown, which could happen in less than a week if policymakers are unable to agree to a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government running beyond Sept. 30, I remain optimistic that NIH will receive its largest annual budget increase in 12 years.
