Clinical trials save lives, advance progress

Did you know Medicaid is the only major payer not required to cover the routine care costs associated with clinical trials? Please ask your lawmakers to support the CLINICAL TREATMENT Act requiring Medicaid to cover those costs.

Today, ASCO is leading a community-wide push for support of this legislation. Please join us in this day of action - especially if your Member(s) of Congress sits on the Senate Finance Committee or the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

At least one-third of childhood cancer patients depend on Medicaid coverage for their care. The CLINICAL TREATMENT Act (H.R. 913) would require Medicaid to cover routine costs associated with enrollment in approved clinical trials for those with life threatening conditions like cancer.

Most children are treated in the context of clinical trials, and their routine care - such as doctor visits and lab studies - is covered by insurance, while the research costs of a trial are covered by a sponsor (most often the National Cancer Institute).

Unfortunately, Medicaid recipients cannot be certain that their care costs will be covered, because of the patchwork of coverage standards across state Medicaid programs. The CLINICAL TREATMENT Act will address the coverage gap for many Medicaid recipients and will eliminate a disparity in access to clinical trials that currently exists.

Clinical trials fuel treatment advances, including new drugs and other therapies, and also provide individual patients access to cutting-edge treatments through clinical trials enrollment. This bill would ensure that Medicaid recipients, including the roughly one-third of children with a cancer diagnosis who rely on Medicaid for their care, will see the financial barrier to clinical trials participation eliminated.

Please act now: Use the action alert below to ask your Members of Congress to support this bill.

We also encourage you to use social media to reach out to your Members of Congress. Here's a sample tweet: Medicaid is the only payer not required to cover routine care costs associated w clinical trials. @(insert your lawmaker’s twitter handle) please support HR 913 the CLINICAL TREATMENT Act, to ensure clinical trial access for Medicaid enrollees.