Peg Ford (left) with Congresswoman Susan Davis
PRESS RELEASE:
A MATTER NEAR AND DEAR TO THE HEART OF AN OVARIAN CANCER SURVIVOR AND PATIENT ADVOCATE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
According to KUSI News, the Motto of San Diego County is “The Noblest Motive is the Public Good.” Peg Ford, Ovarian Cancer Survivor and Patient Advocate, thinks Congresswoman Susan Davis is a living example of the motto in her continuing support to champion women’s health issues. She attended the Congresswoman’s Open House recently to thank her in person for her efforts on several issues that could impact the healthcare of women.
Susan Davis had offered an Amendment to the H.R.2, the Republican Health Care Repeal Bill, to preserve the provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to prevent discrimination against women by insurers. The provision was not accepted for consideration by the full House.
Women who have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer can be at great risk by current insurance companies’ practices, such as lifetime maximums for coverage, pre-existing conditions, and the costs of participating in a clinical trial may not be covered. Fortunately for those women living in the State of California, The California Cancer Trial Law took effect on January 1, 2002 requiring health plans to pay for routine patient care costs when a woman participates in certain cancer clinical trials. The clinical trial law covers cancer patients who participate in Phase I, II, III, or IV cancer treatment studies that are approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Defense, or Department of Veterans Affairs. Unfortunately, for so many women in other states, this is not the case.
However, a new provision requiring group health plans and health insurers that offer individual or group health insurance products to provide coverage of routine patient costs associated with approved clinical trials beginning on or after January 1, 2014 was added to the federal Public Health Service (PHS) as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) health care reform legislation. This provision follows President Clinton’s executive order in June 2000 directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to authorize Medicare payments for routine patient care costsÂ…and costs due to medical complications associated with participation in clinical trials. The successful implementation of this new section of the PPACA of 2010 will expand access to participation in clinical trials for thousands of women with gynecologic cancer across the United States. This triumph could greatly assist in the discovery of a screening test for early diagnosis, better treatments, or possibly lead us closer to a cure of the most lethal gynecologic cancer, and save more women’s lives which is a matter near and dear to Peg Ford’s heart.
