New Brazilian law favors home treatment of cancer patients

Starting next year, supplemental and private health insurance companies in Brazil will be required to cover the costs of oral administered medicines for the treatment of cancer patients at home, reports Juliane Carvalho, writing for Brazil Pharma News.

The measure already foreseen in the National Health Agency (ANS) regulation is now a new Law 12.880/13, published in the Federal Gazette on November 14. President Dilma Rousseff signed the Proposal (PL 3998/12) which originated the final law passed in the House of Representatives in August, and in the Senate last October 22.

Congressman Ricardo Berzoini (PT- SP) was the rapporteur for the proposal in the Committee for the Constitution, Justice and Citizenship of the House (CCJ), which highlights the expansion of coverage agreements will improve the quality of life of cancer patients treated at home. "The patient takes the medicine without the need to go to a hospital or a health clinic. Therefore, under strict medical prescription rules, the patient may soon take his/her own medicine at the comfort of their home with no need to travel and undergo the hospitalization," he says.