News

January 9, 2025

Legislature Passes Illinois Cancer Patients Bill of Rights to Support Access to Lifesaving Cancer Care

As Illinois faces higher cancer mortality rates for most cancer types, the City of Hope-spearheaded resolution represents a step towards ensuring equitable access to care for all

 
November 14, 2024

Leading Cancer Groups, Lawmakers Call for Illinois Cancer Patients Bill of Rights to Expand Access to Lifesaving Cancer Care

As Illinois faces higher cancer mortality rates for most cancer types, a broad coalition of cancer organizations calls for all Illinois cancer patients to have a fundamental right to the latest cancer treatments

 
September 26, 2024

Napolitano Introduces Resolution Recognizing the Rights of Cancer Patients

WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, Rep. Grace F. Napolitano (D-El Monte) introduced H.Res. 1514, to recognize the rights of cancer patients everywhere.

 
April 30, 2024

Medicare Advantage networks should adapt, City of Hope exec says

City of Hope will further extend its reach by teaming up with more academic medical centers and employers, fueled by a $33 million funding round for its startup AccessHope. Narrow Medicare Advantage networks threaten access, however, a City of Hope executive said.

 
November 7, 2023

When It Comes to Cancer Care, Not All Medicare Plans Are The Same

It’s 2024 and your doctor says that you have cancer. Will your health insurance give you access to the best possible treatment?

 
April 21, 2023

Medicare Advantage is not an advantage for many seniors with cancer

When America’s seniors enroll in Medicare, they enter the most medically vulnerable stretch of their lives. And if they are unfortunate enough to be among the 1.9 million Americans each year who hear the terrifying words “you have cancer,” it is imperative they have access to the support and care they need to survive. About 60 percent of cancers occur in people ages 65 or older, accounting for approximately 70 percent of all deaths caused by the disease.

 
October 29, 2022

California cancer care isn’t equitable; a new law might help

Low-income patients who need specialized cancer treatment often struggle to get it. Advocates say a new law is a small step toward improving services for those patients.

 
July 13, 2022

On Medi-Cal, can’t access cancer treatment? New CA bill wants to change it

Many people know someone who has or had cancer. It’s terrible news to get, but the next steps can be worse depending on insurance and finances. Over 13 million people are enrolled in Medi-Cal, which offers insurance through the state for low-income people. Medi-Cal isn’t required to offer access to a comprehensive cancer center, where treatment is the focus. Eight such centers currently exist in California.

 
June 28, 2022

Column: Cancer patients need options to survive. Poor Californians often have none

My husband was diagnosed with cancer when I was eight months pregnant.

 
June 1, 2022

President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Goals Will Hinge on Cancer Care Equity

President Joe Biden gave a much-needed boost of hope to all those impacted by cancer by reigniting the Cancer Moonshot program and renewing the national effort to “end cancer as we know it.”

 
April 29, 2022

California Bill Aims to Give Medi-Cal Patients With Complex Cancers Access to Cutting-Edge Care

NEW YORK – The California Senate Health Committee voted last week to advance a bill addressing disparities in access to cancer care for patients covered by California’s Medicaid healthcare program, Medi-Cal.

 
April 17, 2022

City of Hope’s Alvarnas: Payers Must Recognize Cancer Care Is Different

Patients with cancer should have the same access to precision medicine, clinical trials, and comprehensive cancer care no matter what type of insurance they have, and it should be easier for patients and their families to get needed treatments, according to a hematologist/oncologist and policy leader for City of Hope National Medical Center.

 
February 16, 2022

Breaking down barriers to access cancer care equity

Cancer patients in California should have easy access to high-quality care and innovative cures without needless barriers.

 
December 23, 2021

We’re Delivering ‘Moonshot’ Cancer Care Innovations. It’s Time for a Moonshot to Give Patients Access to Them

Fifty years ago this month, the National Cancer Act was signed into law, helping pave the way to an era in which science has delivered innovations in cancer care that would have seemed like science fiction in 1971. We have treatments for more types of cancer, with better survival rates and fewer side effects, than ever before.

 
September 27, 2021

Cancer Without Chemotherapy: ‘A Totally Different World’

A growing number of cancer patients, especially those with breast and lung cancers, are being spared the dreaded treatment in favor of other options.

 
September 3, 2021

The Cancer Patients’ Bill of Rights: Helping cancer care find its way again

Incredible advances in cancer care are of no benefit to cancer patients if they can’t access them. Sadly, for too many cancer patients, our current system places barriers in their path to accessing the optimal clinical care for their diagnosis.

 
August 27, 2021

California set to adopt first-in-the-nation “Cancer Patients’ Bill of Rights”

According to Joseph Alvarnas, MD, vice president of government affairs at City of Hope, 55% of cancer patients in California don’t receive care consistent with clinical guidelines from national comprehensive cancer networks.

 
March 9, 2021

Dr. Jandial: The cancer patient bill of rights

This segment aired on the KTLA 5 Morning News on March 9, 2021.

 
February 19, 2021

City of Hope leads Cancer Patients Bill of Rights resolution, aimed at expanding access to unleash the full benefits of cancer care innovation

A profound, difficult, seemingly impossible human journey begins with the words, “you have cancer.”

 
May 31, 2020

Less Than 50% of Patients With Cancer Received NCCN-Concordant Care in California From 2004 to 2016

Results of a retrospective analysis released during the ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program suggested that prescribing cancer medications in accordance with National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines appeared to confer better disease-specific survival for patients across 8 different malignancies found in the California Cancer Registry during 2004 to 2016.

 
December 8, 2019

A clinical trial saved my life. So why aren’t more cancer patients enrolling?

 
August 2, 2019

Cancer patients are being denied drugs, even with doctor prescriptions and good insurance

 
July 16, 2019

By Targeting Each Patient’s Unique Tumor, Precision Medicine Is Crushing Once-Untreatable Cancers. But Only a Fraction of Patients Currently Benefit. Can Medicine Close the Gap?

 
December 6, 2016

Medicaid cancer patients receive subpar care

 
November 19, 2015

Medi-Cal cancer patients don’t fare much better than the uninsured, UC Davis study says

 
November 16, 2015

Medi-Cal patients with cancer fare worse than those with other coverage

 
November 6, 2015

Cancer Patients on Medi-Cal Do Worse Than Those with Other Insurance

 
June 4, 2014

Medicaid Patients Get Worse Cancer Care: Studies