Editors' Commentary: Save the baby

Biopharma industry associations, patient advocates and physician groups have joined forces to ask Congress to kill CMS's plan to test new schemes for reimbursing drugs administered in physician offices and hospital outpatient facilities. While the opponents raise valid points, their March 17 letter perpetuates erect-the-barricades thinking that is as obsolete as the outdated reimbursement methods the agency is trying to replace.

Even worse, the biopharma industry and its patient allies are failing to take up the opportunity to actually build a value-based reimbursement system. Instead, they are jumping into the middle of an intractable conflict over payments to providers...