Medicare is having an advisory meeting to determine if they should cover Optune.  Optune is an FDA approved device and has the highest rating - level 1- from the NCCN Guidelines. It is covered by every major private insurance company.  A large randomized phase 3 study has shown a significant advantage, yet Medicare refuses to cover it.  I expect that this meeting might be a complete sham.  The committee was originally balanced with some doctors who like Optune and some who are not fans of it.  After our first private meeting, where it was obvious who supports Medicare having to pay for Optune. the committee chairman removed all of the pro-optune people  (including me)   I hope that some of the remaining  people realize that even if they do not like it, for whatever reason, it is still important that brain tumor patients have access to it and this is not a question of if it should be used (the FDA and NCCN already covered that). This is just a question of if Medicare should pay or the patients should pay. We need to show Medicare that we care about this issue  and the way to do that now is to hae a lot of people watch that video as it is being broadcast. Use a separate device to watch it for each person watching so the number of viewers is accurate! 

 

After the meeting the committee will publish the proposed ruling and we will have a few weeks to comment on it.  I will get back to you on that!