In 2003, Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act.  Under this bill, doctors receive less compensation for giving patients chemotherapy.  Following the passage of the Act, some officials were concerned that the new legislation would reduce the availability and quality of chemotherapy.

A new study out of Duke University School of Medicine, however, has confirmed that the Act has not affected cancer care.  Researchers found no evidence that Medicare patients had to travel any further or search any harder for oncologists willing to administer chemotherapy.

Dr. Kevin Schulman, who led the study, said, "The Medicare Modernization Act took issue with the fact that oncologists were often reimbursed too much -- sometimes as much as three times what they had paid -- for the chemotherapy drugs they were giving their patients."  Under the Act, doctors saw their reimbursements fall.

Dr. Schulman continued, "The concern was that patient care would suffer if doctors had to close their practices or scale back, making it necessary for patients to travel farther or go to inpatient facilities for treatment. Our study showed that this, in fact, has not yet occurred."

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A recent study shows that five years of cancer care for the elderly costs Medicare approximately $21.2 billion.  This staggering figure is expected to swell as the baby boomers age.  The study, which was based on costs generated by cancer patients diagnosed in 2004, reveals that the highest costs are incurred during the first 12 months after diagnosis. Joseph Lipscomb, a health policy researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, said the study is the first to combine cost estimates and survival data to arrive at long-term national estimates for 18 of the most common types of cancers in the elderly. In men, brain and nervous system cancers were measured to be the costliest, whereas in women, ovarian and lung cancers are the most expensive.   For the full findings, click here.