Ensure Medicare Patient Access to Cancer Care

Sign the Petition : 182 Letters and Emails Sent So Far

I am writing to express concern about the proposal by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to cut Medicare payments to cancer care providers, such as hematologists/oncologists, nuclear medicine specialists, urologists and radiation therapists, beginning in calendar year (CY) 2010. As you may know, over 25% of the total proposed cuts in 2010 will be directed towards the above specialists.

President Obama recently pledged that the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), “will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American, including me, by seeking a cure for cancer in our time”. Thus, it is perplexing that the cuts outlined by CMS will negatively impact cancer patients, making advances in cancer care more difficult to deliver.

To be successful in the very personal war against cancer, each patient must have access to the full range of cancer therapies, to cure cancer, to control the growth of cancer, or to relieve pain and other cancer symptoms. It is imperative that the continued achievements of various cancer care therapies be made available to all Medicare patients.

I urge CMS to refrain from finalizing the reductions in Medicare payment for cancer care providers, as proposed in the CY 2010 Physician Fee Schedule Rule.
Ensure Medicare Patient Access to Cancer Care

Enter Your Name and Submit to Sign

don't show my name

Vertical Line
 Add your public comments (optional):

People signing the "Ensure Medicare Patient Access to Cancer Care" petition View Report

  1. Fri., Aug. 6, 2010 2:17 PM    link victor r. | Indianapolis, IN

    i would like to no if this act would exsit if they or there kids or parents had cancer or if they depended on medicare or medicaid for health coverage think about it

    Flag Comment

  2. REPORT COMMENTS

    Are you are sure you want to report these comments to the moderator for removal? They should be offensive, threatening, a duplicate submission, or spam.

       

  3. Fri., Aug. 6, 2010 2:15 PM    link victor r. | Indianapolis, IN

    i would like to no if this act would exsit if they or there kids or parents had cancer or if they depended on medicare or medicaid for health coverage think about it

    Flag Comment

  4. REPORT COMMENTS

    Are you are sure you want to report these comments to the moderator for removal? They should be offensive, threatening, a duplicate submission, or spam.

       

  5. Wed., Aug. 4, 2010 8:26 PM    link Name not displayed | Pleasant Grove, AL

    make s.1789 retroactive

    Flag Comment

  6. REPORT COMMENTS

    Are you are sure you want to report these comments to the moderator for removal? They should be offensive, threatening, a duplicate submission, or spam.

       

  7. Wed., Jul. 21, 2010 6:19 AM    link Name not displayed | Clark, NJ

  8. Wed., Jul. 14, 2010 2:28 AM    link A D A M . | Saint Louis, MO

    Having been through the Gamma Knife, while for neurosurgery and not for oncology, I had to consult both a neurosurgeon and a radiation oncologist. I sat in the same waiting room--the size of a basketball court--at a very large cancer center.

    It bewilders me that CMS would reduce those payments--radiation oncology is lifesaving tool that improves the quality of life for some patients, extends the lives of others, sometimes to the point they're cancer-free.

    I'd urge--no, better yet, I challenge those voting for the cuts to sit in one of those waiting rooms, talk with even one patient, and tell them and their family that today is their last surgical procedure.

    I've challenged an entire state legislative committee to get on a bus and show up and sit across a kitchen table from and explain to their own constituents why they cutting services for the elderly and disabled.

    Not surprisingly, even the State Legislator who lived in an affected area couldn't tell his neighbors. Within a week, after having their phones bursting non-stop for a week with calls from not only every lobbyist but also every ordinary citizen in the state, most who opposed flipped and passed the legislation that restored services.

    I guess that's easier than talking to your constituents. They and their families will talk, though--on Election Day.

    I don't work there--but right before you decide to finalize that schedule, I challenge you to get yourselves right up the street to 23rd & K Streets, NW and tell a dying patient you're about to head back down K Street and Pennsylvania Avenue to pull their plug. (I won't buy the excuse that Foggy Bottom and the edge of Georgetown is a bad part of town. I have felt less safe in the immediate vicinity of The Capitol itself--in broad daylight.)

    The following is quoted right from the website of a very reputable, very close place where you can find those patients: GWU's Radiation Oncology Center, at 2300 K St. NW:

    "Imagine a machine that helps doctors plan radiation treatments for cancer patients with greater precision than ever before. Imagine equipment so sophisticated that it fashions a radiation beam to match the shape of a cancerous tumor. Such high-tech wonders aren't merely a cancer patient's dream for the future. They are a reality at The George Washington University Hospital's Radiation Oncology Center....This innovative technology offers new hope to some cancer patients who may have had more limited treatment options in the past"

    Flag Comment

  9. REPORT COMMENTS

    Are you are sure you want to report these comments to the moderator for removal? They should be offensive, threatening, a duplicate submission, or spam.

       

  10. Fri., Jul. 9, 2010 1:13 PM    link Name not displayed | Las Vegas, NV

  11. Tue., Jul. 6, 2010 8:48 AM    link bonnie s. | Minneapolis, MN

  12. Tue., Jun. 29, 2010 5:09 PM    link Noni H. | Philadelphia, PA

  13. Sat., Jun. 26, 2010 3:46 PM    link Barbara D. | Port Orange, FL

  14. Sat., Jun. 26, 2010 2:44 PM    link Diane L. | Port Orange, FL

  15. Sat., Jun. 26, 2010 2:02 PM    link Virginia B. | Port Orange, FL

  16. Sat., Jun. 26, 2010 1:50 PM    link Patricia T. | Daytona Beach, FL

  17. Sat., Jun. 26, 2010 12:56 PM    link Barbara L. | Port Orange, FL

  18. Fri., Jun. 25, 2010 5:51 AM    link Name not displayed | Fort Lauderdale, FL

  19. Wed., Jun. 23, 2010 9:59 PM    link Name not displayed | Houston, TX

  20. Tue., May. 25, 2010 12:35 PM    link Lisa G. | Halethorpe, MD

  21. Tue., May. 11, 2010 9:36 AM    link Floyd A. | Magnolia, TX

  22. Thu., Apr. 29, 2010 1:29 PM    link Al A. | Wagoner, OK

  23. Sat., Apr. 24, 2010 9:04 PM    link tina m. | Muncie, IN

  24. Tue., Apr. 20, 2010 3:01 PM    link Alice J. | Dallas, TX

View More Petition Signers and Comments

Printer friendly .pdf

Petition created by Petition2Congress

   RSS feed    Powered by Rally Congress    Have questions or feedback?