A diagnosis of cancer is initially devastating to a family. So many unanswered questions： Will there the pain, physical changes and how can I cope if lose my loved one? The last question a family needs to ask at this time is how can I afford the treatment. This the heartfelt sentiment of Sen. Vicki McDonald with the Cancer Drug Repository Program Act, LB756, introduced in the new legislative session. The purpose of the bill is to allow families with unused cancer medications to donate them to a pharmacy, hospital or nonprofit medical clinic. The medications would be inspected and reissued to another cancer patient.
Even so, because of the exacting standards of medical practice that ate necessary to protect patients, we have serious reservations about the McDonald bill. The proposal requires medications to be in their original, sealed, tamper evident, unit-dose packaging. An exception allows the packaging to be opened, but the unit dose seal must still be intact. Medications accepted into the program must also have an expiration date longer than six months away.
The Department of Health and Human Services is charged with setting up the program, establishing the criteria for inspecting the drugs, determining what medications will be accepted and the maximum handling fee a dispensing facility can charge. The bill also requires the person receiving the medication to sign a form releasing liability to the dispensing facility, state, manufacturer, etc., for potentially altered medications. This sounds like a compassionate, caring method of helping one aspect of coping with cancer. Then again, would the benefit of such a program outweigh the risk to even one patient whose medication was not effective because it sat in a hot car for a length of time and the potency had diminished?
LB756 is an admirable attempt for donation of expensive medications back to cancer patients. In reality, however, few pharmacies will be able to maintain the paperwork process required in this bill. In addition, few local pharmacies handle chemotherapy medication distribution.
Patient safety is a priority in most health care professional''s practice. The thought of dispensing a medication where the handling of it could not be tracked violates the rules of a safe, professional practice. Cancer patients tend to be some of our most vulnerable patients. Many times their immune systems are severely compromised from the cancer medications and treatment. Even a slight error or alteration of their medication could have a devastating, negative effect. The Cancer Drug Repository Act has the best intentions of these patients in mind to help meet the financial burden of cancer treatment. Even the best intentions, however, are not always the right thing to do.
