Cancer Care Planning and Communications Act (CCPCA) Will Reduce Unwanted Treatment

Last month, Representatives Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA), introduced the Cancer Care Planning and Communications Act (CCPCA (H.R. 4414), which would create a Medicare service for cancer care planning.

The legislation would improve doctor-patient communication by enabling doctors to bill Medicare for the time they spend developing comprehensive cancer care plans, at diagnosis, when there is a change in treatment plan, and at the transition to post-treatment survivorship. When cancer patients receive a plan that includes expected treatment options and symptoms, they are better able to understand what to expect and become proactive in their own care.

The CCPCA should reduce the high volume of unwanted and ineffective cancer treatments now provided. But it is regrettable that decades of medical ethics guidance and informed consent jurisprudence failed to accomplish better discussion of treatment options. 

U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier