US Medicare adds another compendium for cancer treatment
This article was originally published in Scrip
The US Medicare programme has added Elsevier Gold Standard's Clinical Pharmacology compendium to the list of references acceptable to support Part B coverage for off-label use of medicines to treat cancer. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services(CMS) previously announced it would also recognise the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Drugs and Biologics Compendium and the Thomson Micromedex DrugDex for use by local contractors that process and approve coverage under Part B. The CMS has now completed its review of compendia requests received earlier this year and is exploring options for updating compendia relevant to the Part D drug benefit and the joint federal/state Medicaid programme for the poor.