The battle to make sure that Provenge is available nationally (in the United States) to all men who meet the FDA approval requirements is continuing. We have made great steps through the “noise” that the community has made to date. We have successfully reached, what I believe is, the final step in insuring that Provenge [...]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CME) decided to review their policies pertaining to paying for Provenge, which costs $93,000 per man. Since the hearings which were held a number of months ago, we have not heard any feedback. Despite this, most of the regions have been paying for the treatment, however there have [...]
How are funding decisions made for Medicare and Medicaid? What drugs are to be funded? These questions have recently come to our attention as many of us have attempted to have Medicare fund our use of Provenge. The administration of Medicare is actually broken into 15 different regions, or MACs (Medicare Administrative Contractors). Each MAC [...]
