5 September 2016 - In the complicated world of medicine and money, the federal government relies on a handful of privately run directories to determine which cancer medicines it should pay for, and under which circumstances.

Unfortunately, there are some disturbing problems with these compendiums, and they need to be fixed —because they’re costing taxpayers and run the risk of harming patients.

Here’s the story: There are five independent compendiums, which are published by companies, a nonprofit, and a professional society. These directories contain a wealth of material, including recommendations for so-called off-label prescribing, which is when a doctor turns to a medicine that wasn’t specifically approved to treat a patient’s condition. This happens regularly — especially in oncology, where experimentation is a fixture of medical practice.

Read Boston Globe article