Cancer Prevention and Treatment Demonstration for Ethnic and Racial Minorities

The 4-year demonstration, which started September 2006, is currently phasing down activities and will end March 31, 2011. Section 122(b)(3) of BIPA provides that if the initial Report to Congress on the demonstration projects contains an evaluation that the demonstration projects: 1) reduce Medicare expenditures under title XVIII of the Social Security Act or 2) do not increase Medicare expenditures, reduce racial and ethnic health disparities in the quality of health care services provided to target individuals, and increase beneficiary and provider satisfaction, then the Secretary shall continue the existing demonstration projects and may expand the number of demonstration projects. Because the initial Report to Congress was due so soon after the start of the demonstration, the Report was unable to address either of the above two issues, given the limited time for the interventions being tested to take effect and insufficient participant Medicare claims data to permit measurement of the demonstration's impact. The final Report to Congress is due September 2012.