Insurance Clearance for Early-Phase Oncology Clinical Trials Following the Affordable Care Act.

ABSTRACT: Purpose: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) required that private insurance plans allow clinical trial participation and cover standard-of-care costs, but the impact of this provision has not been well-characterized. We assessed rates of insurance clearance for trial participation within our large early-phase clinical trials program, before and after implementation of the requirement.Experimental Design: We analyzed the departmental database for the Clinical Center for Targeted Therapy (CCTT) at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX). Among patients referred for sponsored trials, we described rates of insurance clearance and prolonged time to clearance (at least 14 days) from July 2012 to June 2013 (baseline), July 2013-December 2013 (following CCTT staffing changes in July 2103)

SUBMITTER: Kehl KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5902668 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature