NABTC Agenda for Action 2010; Join the Coalition for Advocacy Activities in DC or at Home

April 22, 2010

The members of the North American Brain Tumor Coalition will be in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, May 4, to meet with their Senators and Representatives. During those important Congressional visits, the Coalition advocates will be pressing Congress to take several important actions. First, the NABTC will advocate an increase in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to a level of $35 billion in fiscal year 2011. Second, the Coalition will urge Congress to engage in active oversight of implementation of health reform, to guarantee that the promise of the new health care program is realized. Third, the Coalition will ask for champions for a brain tumor awareness resolution, aimed at increasing lawmaker and public awareness of (more...)

Posted in Action Items, Advocacy Positions, Brain Tumor Action Week, Headlines

North American Brain Tumor Coalition Outlines Brain Tumor Research Funding Priorities

April 8, 2010

In a statement submitted to the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees for Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, North American Brain Tumor Coalition Chair Joseph Fay outlined the Coalition’s fiscal year 2011 priorities for funding brain tumor research.

The Coalition endorsed the recommendation of the biomedical research community that National Institutes of Health funding be boosted to $35 billion in fiscal year 2011 and outlined specific brain tumor funding priorities that should be funded from that total.

In his statement, Mr. Fay urged a long-term commitment to basic, translational, and clinical research on brain tumors but also reminded the subcommittees of the urgent need for new brain tumor treatments and the necessity to accelerate the development of new therapies (more...)

Posted in Advocacy Positions, Brain Tumor Research, General News, Headlines

Health Reform Bill Signed Into Law; Several Provisions Will Assist Americans with Brain Tumors

April 7, 2010

President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law (Public Law 111-148) on March 23, 2010. This followed a long weekend of work by the House of Representatives that ended with approval of the health care bill by a vote of 219 to 212. This bill had been approved by the United States Senate on December 24, 2009.

One week later, on March 30, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, which included a number of health-related financing and revenue changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

With the President’s signature on these two pieces of legislation, the process begins to implement an insurance (more...)

Posted in General News, Headlines, Health Care Reform

Register NOW for Brain Tumor Action Week!

April 2, 2010

Please join the North American Brain Tumor Coalition and its friends in Washington, D.C. for Brain Tumor Action Week. On Monday, May 3, we will hold a full-day education day. On Tuesday, May 4, we will make visits to Members of Congress.

Join your friends in the brain tumor community in pressing for federal funding for brain tumor research and implementation of health reform to help uninsured brain tumor patients.

To register, please use the form at http://www.nabraintumor.org/registration10.html.

Posted in Action Items, Brain Tumor Action Week, General News, Headlines

NABTC Applauds CMS Action to Improve Access to Clinical Trials

March 16, 2010

The North American Brain Tumor Coalition joined others in the patient advocacy community in commending action by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to remove barriers to Medicare beneficiaries’ participation in clinical trials.

Although there has been a policy for Medicare payment of routine patient care costs incurred in clinical trials since 2000, the policy does not include adequate protections for Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. MA enrollees who participate in trials out of their MA plan have been required to pay out-of-network cost-sharing for the routine patient care costs of trials. Most of these patients, who do not have supplemental insurance, have found those costs unaffordably high and have declined to (more...)

Posted in Advocacy Positions, Brain Tumor Research

Congress Poised to Take Final Vote on Health Care Reform; NABTC Urges Action

March 16, 2010

Final House and Senate votes on the health care reform legislation are expected the week of March 15, although some reports have suggested a delay in the vote timing. The House will consider the Senate-passed bill, and then both Houses are scheduled to consider amendments to the underlying Senate bill. While Democratic leaders and President Obama are pressing for the “yes” votes necessary for passage, there is much press coverage of the procedures that may be used to secure passage of the reform bill.

The North American Brain Tumor Coalition has not commented on those procedural matters, but it has once again joined with colleagues in the patient advocacy community to articulate the elements of health reform that are (more...)

Posted in General News, Health Care Reform

Register Now! Brain Tumor Action Week in DC on May 3 and 4

March 16, 2010

Please join the North American Brain Tumor Coalition and its friends for Brain Tumor Action Week in Washington, D.C. On Monday, May 3, the Coalition invites you to an education day, featuring a program focusing on brain tumor research and care and including training for advocacy visits to Congress. On Tuesday, May 4, advocates will meet with their Representatives and Senators to discuss policy issues of importance to the brain tumor community.

We’ll be pressing Congress to fund the National Institutes of Health generously, continue a Peer-Reviewed Cancer Research Program at the Department of Defense that supports pediatric brain tumor research, and ensure a strong and coordinated brain tumor research program at the National Cancer Institute and National Institute (more...)

Posted in Brain Tumor Action Week, Headlines

American Society for Radiation Oncology Announces Patient Protection Plan

February 7, 2010

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) announced a six-point patient protection on February 3, 2010. The plan was described as the culmination of a long-term effort to assure that patients receive safe and effective radiation therapy, an effort that continued at the ASTRO Board of Directors winter meeting on January 28-31, 2010.

The ASTRO plan includes the following recommendations: 1) creating a database for the reporting of linear accelerator- and computed tomography-based medical errors, 2) launching an enhanced practice accreditation program, specifically addressing new, advanced technologies such as IMRT, SBRT, and brachytherapy, 3) expanding educational programs, with special emphasis on quality assurance and safety, 4) working with patient support organizations to develop tools for patients to use in discussions (more...)

Posted in General News

Obama Administration Boosts NIH Funding in FY 2011 Budget Proposal

February 7, 2010

On February 1, 2010, the Obama Administration released its proposed budget for fiscal year 2011, including a boost of $1 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This budget implements the President’s pledge to impose an overall freeze in domestic discretionary, eliminating or cutting certain programs to permit increases for others.

In its press release announcing its budget proposal, the Department of Health and Human Services HHS) said that the $1 billion increase in NIH funding, to a total of $32.2 billion, will support innovative basic and clinical research projects. According to HHS, “This effort will be guided by NIH’s five areas of exceptional research opportunities: supporting genomics and other high throughput technologies; translating basic science into (more...)

Posted in Brain Tumor Research, General News, Spending Bills

National Institutes of Health Announces Identification of Subtypes of Glioblastoma Multiforme

February 7, 2010

In a January 19, 2010, press release, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the publication of a study by The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network identifying four distinct molecular subtypes of glioblasoma multiforme (GBM). These findings were heralded as pointing the way toward more personalized approaches to treatment of GBM patients. The research team for TCGA is a collaborative effort funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

The NIH release stated, “Although the findings do not affect current clinical practice, the researchers said the results may lead to more personalized approaches to treating groups of GBM patients based on their genomic alterations. The study, published Jan. 19, (more...)

Posted in Brain Tumor Research, General News