Next week, a CMS committee will hold a daylong meeting to discuss a national coverage determination (NCD) for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapies, the game-changing cancer treatment approved by the FDA for 2 indications, and being studied for more. The request for an NCD was put forth by UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest insurer and...Continue Reading

Aaron Reid is lying in a hospital bed at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center when doctors arrive to make sure he’s ready for his experimental treatment. “How’s your night? Any issues?” asks Dr. Katherine Barnett, a pediatric oncologist, as they begin to examine Reid. Reid, 20, of Lucedale, Miss., has been fighting leukemia...Continue Reading