CMS's visible hand

The Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee held a meeting last week to discuss the efficacy of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in renal transplant patients, an indication that is not on the label, for which ESAs have never been tested, that FDA has never considered, and that is not the reason transplant patients with end-stage renal disease are treated with ESAs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is providing only a bare bones reason for convening the MEDCAC meeting, but the logical conclusion is the hearing is part of the agency's ongoing effort to save money by returning to the use of blood transfusions as its standard for controlling anemia in ESRD patients...