Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS). Office of the Secretary, DoD. Notice of expansion of cancer treatment clinical trials demonstration project

This notice is to advise interested parties of an expansion of a demonstration project in which the DoD provides CHAMPUS reimbursement for eligible beneficiaries who receive cancer treatment under approved National Cancer Institute (NCI) clinical trials to include NCI sponsored cancer prevention clinical trials. Participation in these clinical trials will improve TRICARE/CHAMPUS eligible beneficiary access to emerging new therapies that have significant promise for the prevention and successful treatment of cancers. DoD financing of these procedures will assist in meeting clinical trial goals and arrival at conclusions regarding the safety and efficacy of emerging therapies in the prevention and treatment of cancer. At this time, there is insufficient demonstration data for a full evaluation of costs associated with enrollment in clinical trials. Expanding the current demonstration to provide reimbursement for costs associated with NCI sponsored clinical trials for cancer prevention will augment current patient accruals to clinical trials and allow for data collection in order to perform a comprehensive economic analysis. This demonstration also affects TRICARE, the managed health care program that includes CHAMPUS. This demonstration project, which is under the authority of 10 U.S.C., section 1092, will expire December 31, 1999.