(Washington D.C., Wednesday, November 24, 2021) – Congress is negotiating and voting over President Biden’s Build Back Better Act proposal, his major $1.9 trillion budget and infrastructure package. The House is supposed to vote within a week, and Senate in the coming weeks.

While Build Back Better is, by and large, good, oncologists are warning that parts of the bill are written in such a way that community cancer care across the country will be destroyed

A new independent analysis by the trusted experts at Avalere Health shows that the Build Back Better bill will cut payments to local cancer clinics by as much as 42%. These massive cuts would be devastating blow.

If the bill is passed as written, local practices will close, cancer patients will lose access and choice of their doctors, and, ironically, costs will go up, not down, as cancer care is shifted into the much more expensive hospital setting.

There is still time for Congress to fix Build Back Better with minor changes that ensure our cancer care infrastructure is not destroyed by this rushed and complicated bill.

The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for community oncology practices and, most importantly, the patients they serve. COA is the only organization dedicated solely to community oncology where the majority of Americans with cancer are treated. The mission of COA is to ensure that cancer patients receive quality, affordable, and accessible cancer care in their own communities. More than 1.5 million people in the United States are diagnosed with cancer each year and deaths from the disease have been steadily declining due to earlier detection, diagnosis, and treatment.