Re: Chemotherapy Drug Concession

The results of a Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee Meeting in Baltimore, MD in November 1999, is how I learned of the "chemotherapy drug concession." One of the gastroenterologist in attendance complained how Medicare had cut his reimbursement for colonoscopies from $400 to $108 and how all the doctors in his large, multi-specialty internal medicine group were hurting, save for the two oncologists, who he said were making a killing running their in-office retail pharmacies.

Then, in 2000, I came across an article in the New York Times that described how President Clinton wanted to put a lid on this practice or at least lower the spread of profits. The New York Times brought it up again in 2003.

The problem is not lousy doctors, it's a lousy system. The best reform to the system is to totally remove the profit incentive from chemotherapy administration.

Wow! and Eye Opening! are but a few of the many adjectives I received from a multitude of respondents on this.