Latest Updates

Read the latest news that impacts the oncology community.

Progress & Peril in the Proposed 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

Published On: August 29th, 2025

For years, independent community oncology practices have anticipated the release of the annual Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) with trepidation. Historically, reimbursement for critical services like chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and imaging has been cut or not adjusted to account for inflation, making it harder for practices to keep their doors open to care for patients.

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Long-Lasting Drug Shortages Highlight Fragile Supply Chains and Systemic Market Pressures

Published On: August 29th, 2025

Drug shortages remain one of the most pressing challenges facing the U.S. healthcare system, with the vast majority of shortages carrying over from previous years. In the 2025 Annual Drug Shortage Report, experts at the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) identified systemic drivers—including low pricing, manufacturing concentration, production complexity, and quality concerns—that continue to disrupt supply chains and compromise patient care.

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Medicare Advantage star ratings lawsuit losses pile up

Published On: August 29th, 2025

Medicare Advantage insurers have mostly failed to persuade courts that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should award them higher scores and lucrative bonuses under the Star Ratings program.

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FDA Rejects Kidney Cancer Drug

Published On: August 29th, 2025

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected the biologics license application for TLX250-CDx (Zircaix), an investigational positron emission tomography (PET) agent for diagnosing and characterizing renal masses as clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), according to a news release from the drug’s manufacturer, Telix Pharmaceuticals. This marks the second oncology drug rejection for the company in recent months.

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HHS Uses Tariff Threats To Push For Lower Domestic Drug Prices

Published On: August 28th, 2025

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday the Trump administration is deep into negotiations with drugmakers using tariffs as leverage to seek a “most favored nation” policy to lower U.S. prescription drug prices -- with the promise that tariffs would be avoided if companies cut prices.

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FDA Grants Breakthrough Designation for ctDNA Test in Colorectal Cancer

Published On: August 28th, 2025

The US FDA has granted breakthrough device designation to the Haystack MRD test, a circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) assay developed by Quest Diagnostics.1 This designation recognizes the test's potential to significantly improve the management of minimal residual disease (MRD) in patients with stage II colorectal cancer following curative-intent surgical treatment. 

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It’s time to stop hospitals from turning drug discounts into cash cows

Published On: August 28th, 2025

Designed to help hospitals and clinics serving low-income and uninsured patients, the 340B program has evolved into a markup scheme that enriches large hospital systems.

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Alabama Department of Insurance creates new pharmacy benefit manager compliance division

Published On: August 28th, 2025

The Alabama Department of Insurance (DOI) is creating a new pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) compliance division, DOI commissioner Mark Fowler announced on Wednesday.

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Hospital lobby 'confident' 340B pilot program 'will ultimately fail'

Published On: August 28th, 2025

Just days and weeks away from key deadlines, the hospital industry’s leading trade organization is still calling for the administration to scrap a one-year pilot of drugmakers’ preferred approach to statutory drug discounts.

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DOJ probing UnitedHealth’s Optum Rx, alongside Medicare practices

Published On: August 27th, 2025

The U.S. Justice Department’s criminal division is digging into UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s prescription management services as well as how it reimburses its own doctors under an ongoing probe into the firm’s operations, according to people familiar with the matter.

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