Washington, D.C.—The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a proposed rule detailing how the government would cover costs for Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell cancer therapy for Medicare enrollees.
CAR-T is a promising new way to get immune cells to fight cancer by changing them in the lab so they can find and destroy cancer cells. Because the treatment is new and complicated—requiring multiple steps—previous coverage models were insufficient.
A statement from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) follows:
“We welcome Medicare's proposed coverage rule for CAR-T therapy. The rule will ensure long-term coverage for this new and innovative treatment. CAR-T has already been approved for treating difficult relapsing and resistant cases of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and childhood leukemia and may prove useful for several other cancers.
“Medicare coverage of new treatments like CAR-T is essential to ensuring the latest and most appropriate treatments are available and affordable for those who need them. We urge CMS to make this rule final.”