AUGUSTA – The Legislature gave final approval last Wednesday to a measure from Rep. Kristi Mathieson, D-Kittery, that prohibits step, or “fail first,” therapy for patients with advanced metastatic cancer.
Step therapy, required by some health insurance carriers, mandates that patients try and fail various treatments before accessing the medication they were originally prescribed by a doctor. By preventing this, LD 178 ensures that patients with an advanced metastatic cancer diagnosis receive medically necessary and effective treatment, decreasing morbidity and increasing patient quality of life.
“Metastatic breast cancer is extremely difficult. The women who receive this diagnosis need to be supported – not forced to fight for medically necessary, provider prescribed care,” said Mathieson. “This legislation will save patients money, it will reduce their suffering and side effects from being required to try ineffective treatments, and it will ensure they are on protocols that actually align with clinical guidelines.”
According to research published by the American Association for Cancer Research, metastatic or stage IV cancers represent 18% of all estimated diagnoses but 48% of all estimated cancer-related deaths within five years. The American College of Physicians also determined that even a four-week delay of cancer treatment is associated with increased mortality, and more than half of clinicians report difficulty obtaining approval for prescriptions.
The Maine Nurse Practitioner Association, the Maine State and National Nurses Associations, Consumers for Affordable Health Care, New England Cancer Specialists, Maine Medical Association, the Maine Osteopathic Association and many others testified in support of the measure at its public hearing in February.
The bill now heads to the governor’s desk.
Mathieson is serving her third term in the Maine House representing Kittery and is House chair of the Legislature’s Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee.
Contact:
Brian Lee (Mathieson) | 305-965-2744