Study finds 68.5% of US counties have no radiation oncology clinic, closures skew rural
Plus: CMS proposes cutting 340B cancer-drug payment 37 points, from ASP+6% to ASP-33.4%. The day's rules, money, and enforcement, sourced and tiered below.
Plus: CMS proposes cutting 340B cancer-drug payment 37 points, from ASP+6% to ASP-33.4%. The day's rules, money, and enforcement, sourced and tiered below.
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American Health Intel
Rules · Money · Medicine · Decoded daily
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| The Service Line |
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 |
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Study finds 68.5% of US counties have no radiation oncology clinic, closures skew rural
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Plus: CMS proposes cutting 340B cancer-drug payment 37 points, from ASP+6% to ASP-33.4%. The day's rules, money, and enforcement, sourced and tiered below.
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Report Confidence: High
A new peer-reviewed study found more than two-thirds of U.S. counties, home to 50.8 million people, now have no radiation oncology clinic, the specialty that delivers cancer-killing radiation treatment.
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found 13.6% of counties lost radiation oncology sites since 2018, mostly rural and poorer areas. Medicare radiation therapy pay is down over 25% in a decade.
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Why it matters
This matters because where you live increasingly determines whether you can get radiation therapy without traveling far, and the gap is widening in poorer, rural areas.
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Rule Confidence: High
CMS, the agency that runs Medicare, proposed cutting what hospitals get paid for 340B-acquired cancer drugs, the discounted drugs hospitals buy through a federal program, by 37 percentage points starting 2027.
The rate drops from ASP+6% to ASP-33.4%. Comments close Aug 31, 2026. CMS is separately accelerating repayment of a $7.8 billion 340B debt to hospitals, from 0.5% to 3% of drug payments a year.
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Why it matters
This is a proposal, not final law yet, but if it holds it directly cuts what hospitals earn on discounted cancer drugs, which could change where you get treated as hospitals reassess their infusion programs.
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