Medicare cuts increase cancer treatments, study finds

The 2005 Medicare Modernization Act, which substantially reduced Medicare payments to physicians for administering outpatient chemotherapy drugs, has had a somewhat paradoxical effect. Rather than resulting in fewer treatments, as one might expect, a new study finds that the Act has actually increased chemotherapy treatment rates among Medicare recipients.

"This sort of dynamic runs contrary to what most people would expect, but economists often encounter this sort of thing," says Joseph Newhouse, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University and...

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