Medicare to Pay Patient Care Costs in Clinical Studies

National Cancer Institute
Wednesday, 7 June 2000

President Clinton has issued an executive memorandum directing the Medicare program to reimburse providers for the cost of routine patient care in clinical trials. The memorandum also provides for additional actions to promote the participation of Medicare beneficiaries in clinical studies.

Patients and physicians interested in trials can find them via a new database that lists and describes clinical trials around the country sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The Web address is http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui/c/b

Those searching for cancer studies specifically can also call the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) toll-free number, 1-800-4-CANCER or go to one of the NCI Web sites with information on clinical trials: http://cancertrials.nci.nih.gov or http://cancerrnet.nci.nih.gov.

More details on the new policy are available on the Internet at http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/html/20000607.html

For more information, or to contact National Cancer Institute, see their website at: www.cancer.gov