Atlanta<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat can lawmakers do about it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For one thing, they can knock down barriers to cancer screening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At prior hearings of the House Study Committee on Cancer Care Access in May and June, they learned that cancer care is hard to come by in rural areas, as the medical payments system squeezes smaller service providers. Rising costs and inadequate transportation contribute to lack of access to care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The later cancer is detected, the deadlier it gets. It also becomes costlier to treat, driving up health-care costs for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers heard repeatedly about how medical industry consolidation is exacerbating lack of access by forcing patients to drive farther to find a specialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Harsha Vyas, who has a small medical office in Dublin, asked study committee members to address what he sees as a systemic problem in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries: pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re middlemen in the health-care system created by insurance companies,\u201d Vyas said. \u201cThey dictate all sorts of things they shouldn\u2019t be dictating. \u2026 Just three PBMs control 80% of the drug market in the country. If that\u2019s not monopoly, I don\u2019t know what else is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vyas said insurers have too much control over what doctors prescribe though a system called pre-authorization, and he said reimbursement rates for clinics like his are too low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to keep them accountable,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t call them to the table. \u201cYou guys can, and you\u2019ve got to ask them the tough questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No insurance companies were represented at Wednesday\u2019s hearing, but a DCH staffer explained how Medicaid is managed in Georgia through contracts with management companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Graham, from Children\u2019s Healthcare, said cancer in children is connected with genetic syndromes, birth defects and maternal age. But there are other correlations that are within parents\u2019 control: breastfeeding and maternal vitamins are associated with reduced child cancer risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, the committee\u2019s chairman, said he and other lawmakers are working on drug pricing and other issues. He wrapped up the committee\u2019s listening tour by saying the General Assembly will continue to study cancer care access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re just at the beginning and scratching the surface of what we can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About 66,000 Georgians will get cancer this year, and 19,000 of them will die. That sobering estimate by the American Cancer Society explains why state lawmakers decided to study the disease this summer in an attempt to reduce the rate. \u201cWe are above the average for the nation,\u201d Dr. Jorge Cortes, director of the Georgia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":948,"featured_media":83677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11786],"tags":[13587,8555,8621],"class_list":["post-225213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-health-care","tag-rural-health","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}