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By
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press
Cancer
patients relieved that they can get insurance coverage because of the new
health care law may be disappointed to learn that some the nation's best cancer
hospitals are off-limits.
An
Associated Press survey found examples coast to coast. Seattle Cancer Care
Alliance is excluded by five out of eight insurers in Washington state's
insurance exchange. MD Anderson Cancer Center says it's in less than half of
the plans in the Houston area. Memorial Sloan-Kettering is included by two of
nine insurers in New York City and has out-of-network agreements with two more.
Doctors
and administrators say they're concerned. So are some state insurance
regulators.
In
all, only four of 19 nationally recognized comprehensive cancer centers that
responded to AP's survey said patients have access through all the insurance
companies in their state exchange. Not too long ago, insurance companies
would have been vying to offer access to renowned cancer centers, said Dan
Mendelson, CEO of the market research firm Avalere Health. Now the focus is on
costs.
"This
is a marked deterioration of access to the premier cancer centers for people
who are signing up for these plans," Mendelson said.
Those
patients may not be able get the most advanced treatment, including clinical
trials of new medications.
And
there's another problem: It's not easy for consumers shopping online in the new
insurance markets to tell whether top-level institutions are included in a
plan. That takes additional digging by the people applying.
Read
the full story: www.abcnews.go.com
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