CMS Officially Recognizes NCCN Drugs & Biologics Compendium™

FORT WASHINGTON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NCCN is pleased to announce that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has recognized the NCCN Drugs & Biologics Compendium™ as a mandated reference for establishment of coverage policy and coverage decisions regarding the use of drugs and biologics in cancer care.

The NCCN Compendium will be used by CMS for national coverage determinations and by intermediaries and carriers for locoregional determinations. The major application will be in determinations about coverage for the use of drugs and biologics in oncology beyond the FDA approved indication.

This recognition comes on the heels of a recent announcement that UnitedHealthcare would base its coverage for chemotherapy drugs used in outpatient settings on the NCCN Drugs and Biologics Compendium™. Recognition from CMS, the nation’s largest health insurer, is another positive outcome of adapting and transcribing the recommendations from the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology™ to a compendium format.

The NCCN Drugs & Biologics Compendium™ provides sound, scientific, evaluative information to the oncology community to order to inform and improve decision-making and outcomes. This and all other NCCN products and resources are available free of charge at www.nccn.org.

About the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), a not-for-profit alliance of 21 of the world’s leading cancer centers, is dedicated to improving the quality and effectiveness of care provided to patients with cancer. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the health care delivery system. As the arbiter of high-quality cancer care, NCCN promotes the importance of continuous quality improvement and recognizes the significance of creating clinical practice guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other health care decision-makers. The primary goal of all NCCN initiatives is to improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of oncology practice so patients can live better lives.

For more information, visit www.nccn.org.

The NCCN Member Institutions are: City of Hope, Los Angeles, CA; Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center | Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, MA; Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, Durham, NC; Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA; Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle, WA; Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital & Richard J. Solove Research Institute at The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD; Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY; H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, FL; Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY; Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital/University of Tennessee Cancer Institute, Memphis, TN; Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center, Stanford, CA; University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center, Birmingham, AL; UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA; University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, MI; UNMC Eppley Cancer Center at The Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE; The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, TN.