Oregon Starts Rationing End-of-Life Treatment

Yesterday, at the monthly meeting of the Oregon Health Education Review Commission, the HERC adopted restrictions on the type of treatment that cancer patients under Medicaid can receive.  The new guidelines go into effect in October 2013.



An earlier revision said patients expected to live two years or less were to have restricted treatment.  But that was revised to instead impose restrictions on terminally ill patients too weak to withstand chemotherapy or who have had multiple rounds of treatment and are not improving.  So, if the patient's organ systems are so fragile they are getting so close to the end of life, then they will not be eligible for treatment aimed at curing their cancer.  But treatment for pain and nausea, including some surgeries and radiation, will still be covered.