When President Biden met with doctors at the James Comprehensive Cancer Center at Ohio State University, his enthusiasm about cancer research and proton therapy was unequivocal. As he effusively described the innovation taking place there as “a source of hope,” he encouraged a continued “focus on proton therapy.” Part of that hope comes from the innovative and groundbreaking research on, and utilization of, proton therapy.
Recently, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has modified the Radiation Oncology Alternative Payment Model (RO APM) that drastically reduces reimbursement for this treatment. Proton therapy should be excluded from a value-based model that fails to recognize its short- and long-term value to Medicare beneficiaries.