MILWAUKEE, May 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services recently issued a decision to
expand Medicare coverage for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell
transplants (HCT) for eligible Medicare patients with
myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), based on decades-long research led
by investigators at the Medical College of
Wisconsin (MCW) Cancer Center, in collaboration with
investigators in the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials
Network (BMT CTN) and advocacy experts at the American Society of
Hematology (ASH), American Society for Transplantation and Cellular
Therapy (ASTCT) and the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP).
MDS is a group of cancers that affect the body's ability to
produce healthy blood cells. Allogeneic HCT is the only
curative therapy for patients with MDS.
"Until now, patients 65 and older with Medicare did not receive
coverage for HCT, largely due to limited clinical research
demonstrating that transplantations benefited patients in older age
brackets (specifically Medicare beneficiaries) in the same way they
benefitted younger patients," said Douglas Rizzo, MD, MS, Senior Scientific
Director of the Center for International Blood and Marrow
Transplant Research (CIBMTR), a research affiliation of MCW and
NMDP, and Cancer Service Line Director at Froedtert & the
Medical College of Wisconsin. This
challenge was further exacerbated since older adults were,
consequently, overlooked as candidates for transplant because they
did not have Medicare coverage for the procedure.
"We used our expertise in transplantation and the CIBMTR and BMT
CTN research platforms to develop observational and interventional
trials that would serve as a mechanism for gathering evidence to
inform Medicare payment policy. For the first time in history, this
made it possible for Medicare beneficiaries with MDS to enroll for
treatment at transplant centers across the country and get coverage
to support their care," said Dr. Rizzo. "In the first three years
after Medicare agreed to provide coverage conditional on
participating in approved studies, the number of transplants more
than quadrupled, and we started to see lifesaving outcomes that
proved our belief that older patients would benefit from
transplantation, just the same as younger patients."
Since then, studies on MDS led by MCW, and in collaboration with
investigators from other institutions participating in the CIBMTR
and BMT CTN, have provided access to transplants for nearly 6,000
Americans with MDS over the age of 65.
"We are proud to be part of this important work to bring greater
HCT access to people on Medicare with MDS," said Mohandas Narla, DSc, ASH President, and
distinguished scientist at New York Blood Health Enterprises.
A final decision was recently made by Medicare in the form of a
National Coverage Analysis Decision Memo to expand Medicare
coverage for the affected population.
Full release:
https://www.mcw.edu/newsroom/news-articles/mcw-cancer-center-leads-groundbreaking-change-in-medicare-policy-for-mds-patients-over-65
View original
content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/medical-college-of-wisconsin-cancer-center-leads-groundbreaking-change-in-medicare-policy-for-mds-patients-over-65-in-need-of-lifesaving-transplants-302140035.html
SOURCE Medical College of
Wisconsin