Cancer Prevention and Treatment Demonstration for Ethnic and Racial Minorities

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 and reduce racial and ethnic health disparities in the quality of health care services provided to target individuals and increase beneficiary and provider satisfaction, the Secretary shall continue the existing demonstration projects and may expand the number of demonstration projects. Since 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. This was largely due to the limited time for the interventions being tested to take effect and the insufficient Medicare claims data experience of participants to permit measurement of the demonstration's impact. The next Report to Congress was deivered in September 2010. The four year demonstration, which started September 2006, was scheduled to end December 2010.