Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Feds will create new version of project for 2006.

Oncology practices that have been depending on the $300 million chemotherapy demonstration project to stay afloat can breathe easier.

That demonstration project--where physicians answer questions about pain, nausea and fatigue--expires at the end of the year.
 
However, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will create a new project for 2006, in which physicians will collect data about how they treat any of 13 different cancers.

In the demonstration, physicians will supply information to CMS about coordination of care, treatment design, and patient monitoring. CMS wants to see whether physicians are meeting evidence-based guidelines in treating cancer patients, and if not, why not.

CMS will establish new G-codes for the project, CMS official Terrence Kay told the Nov. 3 physician Open Door Forum. 

CMS is still analyzing the information physicians provided this year, but "we know from what we've learned already that there's more to do," CMS administrator Mark McClellan told reporters.

McClellan added that the evidence-based guidelines wouldn't limit well-established off-label use of chemotherapy drugs.