Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester.

Cancer clinics are turning away thousands of Medicare patients. Blame the sequester.

"Oncologists say the reduced funding, which took effect for Medicare on April 1, makes it impossible to administer expensive chemotherapy drugs while staying afloat financially. ‘If we treated the patients receiving the most expensive drugs, we’d be out of business in six months to a year,’ said Jeff Vacirca, chief executive of North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates in New York. ‘The drugs we’re going to lose money on we’re not going to administer right now.’ After an emergency meeting Tuesday, Vacirca’s clinics decided that they would no longer see one-third of their 16,000 Medicare patients."

"The federal government typically pays community oncologists for the average sales price of a chemotherapy drug, plus 6 percent to cover the cost of storing and administering the medication. Since oncologists cannot change the drug prices, they argue that the entire 2 percent cut will have to come out of that 6 percent overhead. That would make it more akin to a double-digit pay cut."

1. Maybe we shouldn't have a sequester. 2. Maybe Medicare should be able to negotiate a volume discount on drug prices

These aren't the only cuts that are starting to affect real people in real ways. Sequestration Effects: Cuts Sting Communities Nationwide.