NEWS

NCI and DoD Agree to Expand Clinical Trials Coverage

In an interagency agreement, the Department of Defense and the National Cancer Institute have agreed to expand clinical trials coverage to include prevention studies for military beneficiaries and their families. It is the first time that a national health plan — the DoD's TRICARE — has agreed to provide such coverage.

Richard Klausner, M.D., NCI's director, praised the DoD and said that the agreement "will become a model for providing access to the best available health care, while ensuring that cancer research can continue to make progress."

The expanded agreement is part of the DoD/NCI Cancer Clinical Trials Agreement, which was signed in 1996. The initial agreement established medical coverage to NCI-sponsored clinical treatment trials for about 8.3 million military beneficiaries and their families who are covered through DoD's direct care system (120 military hospitals) and through care purchased from civilian providers who are then reimbursed by DoD. Prior to this, DoD regulations had limited reimbursement for medical care delivered as part of a clinical trial.

Now, under the expanded agreement, "some TRICARE beneficiaries with an increased risk of developing cancer," said Sue Bailey, M.D., Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, are being offered a chance to minimize that chance. "It is another way to help keep our troops and their families healthy," she said in a prepared statement.



             
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