MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Allison Miller
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: 608-662-7559
Email: [email protected]
South Dakota Governor Signs Bill Giving Cancer Patients Equal Access to Oral Chemotherapy
Pierre, So. Dakota—March 30, 2015—South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed into law Monday a bill that will give South Dakota cancer patients equal access to oral and intravenous chemotherapies under their insurance plans.
The oral chemotherapy access bill, which passed the Legislature with unanimous support, will eliminate disparities in cost-sharing for treatments taken by pill and those delivered intravenously in an oncology clinic.
“By signing this bill into law Governor Daugaard helps ensure South Dakota cancer patients get the care they need regardless of how their treatment is administered,” said David Benson, South Dakota government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “Increasingly the best and sometimes the only treatment available for patients comes in the form of a pill not through an IV drip. With today’s signing South Dakota takes an important step toward ensuring our state laws better reflect the reality of modern cancer care.”
Previously, orally-administered cancer medications were sometimes covered under a health plan's pharmacy benefit rather than its medical benefit. For plans that require patients to pay a co-insurance for drugs, this resulted in prohibitively expensive co-pays or co-insurance. Patients were at risk of either forgoing the best treatment available or facing substantial financial hardship. An estimated 25 percent of the new cancer drugs are being developed as oral chemotherapies.
“We hope patients and caregivers across the state can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that should their cancer require oral chemotherapy treatment it will be now be covered appropriately, just the same as any other cancer treatment,” said Mary Kolsrud, executive director of Susan G. Komen South Dakota. “This bill was always about treating all cancer patients equally and respecting their doctors’ decisions on the best treatments to beat the disease.”
Allowing patients to take their chemotherapy at home with a pill will also provide those patients in rural areas a better quality of life--sparing them long and needless commutes to oncology clinics.
In addition to ACS CAN, several other health and patient advocacy groups supported this legislation including, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the International Myeloma Foundation and Susan G. Komen South Dakota.
Numerous other states, including Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin, have passed similar legislation in recent years.
About ACS CAN
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
About Susan G. Komen South Dakota
Susan G. Komen South Dakota has been providing vital life-saving breast health services in the state since 2005 and has granted over $1.5 million in community breath health programming efforts in South Dakota. The Affiliate has also also invested in Susan G. Komen’s global research portfolio of over $840 million dollars in the quest to find better treatments and ultimately, the cures.