President Jair Bolsonaro signed on Thursday (3) the law that obliges health plans to provide home chemotherapy for oral use.
The text gives ten days, after the medical prescription, for plans to offer oral antineoplastic treatment directly to the cancer patient or a legal representative.
This can occur through the plan’s own network, accredited, contracted or referenced.
The plans also need to prove that the patient, or his representative, has received guidance on the use, conservation and eventual disposal of the drug.
The new law also sets deadlines for the ANS (National Supplementary Health Agency), which regulates health plans, to finalize the process of incorporating new technologies into the list of procedures that plans are required to offer patients.
The rules provide that the ANS now has the obligation to review new treatment procedures in up to 180 days, extendable for another 90 days. If the deadline is not met, the new remedy or the new procedure is automatically approved.
In the case of oral chemotherapy, the time is shorter: the ANS has 120 days to approve the administrative process.
The debate on the subject was controversial.
At first, the National Congress approved a project that gave 48 hours for oral chemotherapy to be delivered to the patient, regardless of approval by the ANS,
Author of the project, Senator Reguffe (Podes-DF) argued that, for the adoption of endovenous treatment, only the approval of Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) would be enough for the health plan to have to pay for the treatment.
His project was approved by a large majority of votes in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, but was vetoed by Bolsonaro.
The argument for blocking the law was that the adoption of new drugs without analysis by the ANS, which also studies the economic aspects and financial balance of companies, could destabilize the plans. The cost, according to supporters of the veto, would eventually be pushed onto patients.
Bolsonaro then sent a proposal for a Provisional Measure (MP) maintaining the obligation to pay oral chemotherapy, provided that it is approved by Anvisa and also by the ANS, within the established deadlines.
“We brought a greater benefit to users of health plans, with an environment of sustainability”, said the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, to the column.
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