03/08/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/08/2024 11:19
Marking major progress on President Biden's Unity Agenda, the Biden Cancer Moonshot secured new commitments from health plans and oncology providers to deliver important support services to more Americans living with complex health conditions, including cancer
Today, the Biden Cancer Moonshot announced new commitments from seven leading health insurance companiesto begin paying for navigation services to help patients and their families navigate health care treatments for cancer and other serious illnesses. These health insurers-Aetna, a CVS Health company; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota; Elevance Health; Health Alliance Plan; Humana; Priority Health; and Select Health-serve more than 150 million patients, nearly half of all Americans across the country. In addition, the Biden Cancer Moonshot announced 40 comprehensive cancer centers and community oncology practices nationwide who commit to using the new navigation codes to provide patient navigation services to people facing cancer.
Through the Biden Cancer Moonshot, President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have prioritized supportive services for people who are touched by cancer, including by championing the importance of patient navigation services. Navigators guide families through every step of their cancer journey. Navigators have been shown to improve health outcomes and the patient experience by reducing times between diagnosis and treatment, and increasing treatment completion. These services also lower healthcare costs by reducing ER visits and hospitalizations and reduce health disparities, including by facilitating access to services to address unmet social determinants of health, such as food and housing insecurity and transportation needs. Until President Biden and Dr. Biden prioritized increasing these services, Medicare and other health plans largely did not pay for navigation, leaving this service out of reach for too many people, especially in low-resourced settings.
With leadership from First Lady Jill Biden, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that Medicare would begin paying for certain navigation services starting January 1, 2024. The Biden Cancer Moonshot also led efforts to update existing medical billing codes to enable commercial health insurers to pay for navigation services. The Cancer Moonshot's efforts to update the billing codes and drive use among providers and insurers means, for the first time ever, millions of Americans will be able to access much-needed support, like clinical care coordination, health education, patient self-advocacy training, health system navigation, and connection to community-based social services to address food and housing insecurity, transportation needs, or other issues that could interfere with treatment.
Specifically, these leading national and regional health insurers, comprehensive cancer centers and community oncology practices have committedto:
Today, 40 comprehensive cancer centers and community oncology practices have committed to these actions, representing a large share of the U.S. health sector and cancer care across the country, including:
Today, the Biden Cancer Moonshot is also announcing that national health plan associations and provider associationspledge to educate their membership about how to use these codes to cover for navigation services, and to assess usage of these codes across their membership. Together, these associations represent more than 950 payer members and more than 2,750 cancer centers and independent oncology practices, which serve hundreds of millions of Americans.
Achieving the bold goals of the reignited Biden Cancer Moonshot requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, and President Biden calls on the private sector, foundations, academic institutions, and healthcare providers to contribute new actions and collaborations that will help end cancer as we know it.
Please share your ideas, actions and input at https://www.whitehouse.gov/cancermoonshot.
###