Hi All,
Dr. Gil Welch and Dr. Barry Kramer, former director of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Prevention, posted this essay today in STAT:
https://www.statnews.com/2022/01/12/medicare-shouldnt-cover-liquid-biopsies-early-cancer-detection/As I mentioned earlier, just the prospect of Aduhelm use had Medicare substantially raise premiums this year. Blood testing like that advocated by the American Cancer Society
would dwarf those medication-related costs with a cascade of needless and harmful diagnostics and therapeutics.
As someone who has, since my time with the National Health Service Corps, cared for a patient panel virtually all with Medicaid and Medicare coverage, I find the ACS's argument about this testing technology solving inequities to be especially galling and misleading.
I hope this can be an active area for SIDM to weigh in as Drs. Welch and Kramer have today.
Best,
Steve
H. Gilbert Welch is a general internist, senior investigator in the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and author of several books, including "Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions That Drive Too Much Medical Care" (Beacon Press, 2015). Barnett Kramer is an oncologist, member of the Lisa Schwartz Foundation for Truth in Medicine, and former director of the National Cancer Institute's Division of Cancer Prevention. Both are Medicare beneficiaries.------------------------------
Stephen Martin, MD EdM
UMass Chan Medical School
------------------------------