Change Healthcare, a healthcare technology company that is a business unit of Optum and owned by UnitedHealth Group, fell victim to a cyberattack on February 21, 2024. Regular updates on the situation are available for impacted customers on Optum’s website. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is assessing the oncology-specific impact of the attack and will keep its members up to date.

State governments are increasingly considering legislation to streamline prior authorizations processes, which Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) members say delay patient care, adversely affect cancer care outcomes, and divert providers from patient care. States have regulatory authority over fully insured health benefit plans (group and individual plans) and health benefit plans administered by the state itself (Medicaid and state employee benefit plans). This means that state governments can impact plan design through either legislation or regulatory action, and during the past decade, a majority of states have been working to leverage that impact to reform prior authorization.

Today the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Labor and the Treasury Department finalized a rule regulating the availability of short-term limited duration insurance (STLDI) plans. The rule would restrict the availability of these plans to no more than four months.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reopened the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances (EUC) Exception Application for 2023 due to the Change Healthcare cyberattack. Clinicians who have not yet submitted their 2023 MIPS data to CMS, can submit hardship exemption requests for one or more performance categories until April 15, 2024, at 8 p.m. ET.

President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, which included a +1.68% adjustment to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) conversion factor (CF) for the remainder of  calendar year (CY) 2024. This increase results in a 1.68% reduction to the 3.37% CF cut finalized in the 2024 MPFS final Rule. The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) advocated for Congress to address the full 3.37% Medicare physician reimbursement cut, and while ASCO appreciates congressional action, the Association is disappointed that Congress failed to eliminate the entire reimbursement cut.

A new ASCO policy statement is emphasizing the urgent need for global equity in clinical trials. The statement, which published March 14, 2024, in JCO Global Oncology, explains how global equity can be advanced by diversifying trial representation, increasing access to resources, and strengthening research capacity on a global scale.

The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is closely following cases before the United States Supreme Court that have the potential to significantly impact the delivery of cancer care in the U.S. by reshaping the authority of the federal agencies that regulate health care in the country. The Court is expected to issue rulings in these cases before its current session ends in June 2024.