States Limit Costly Sites for Cancer Radiation - NY Times

ANDREW POLLACK

Seeking to rein in medical costs, a commission in Michigan on Wednesday moved to prevent hospitals in the state from each spending $100 million or more to provide a new form of radiation treatment for cancer.

The commission, which sets standards for major hospital construction, said it would allow only one center to be built in the state for the treatment, which is known as proton beam therapy. It ordered the state’s largest hospitals — four of which had already proposed their own centers — to collaborate on that one project.

“The costs of multiple centers, each having the most expensive medical equipment yet developed, would be tremendous,” the state’s Certificate of Need Commission said.

source: New York Times