Managed Care Plans to Help Pay Costs of Clinical Trials for Their Members

WASHINGTON—In an agreement negotiated by the National Institutes of Health and the American Association of Health Plans, the association says it will encourage its members to “reimburse the routine patient-care costs associated with NIH-sponsored clinical trials, provided those costs are not substantially higher than the costs a plan would incur in the course of standard treatment.”

The agreement has been reported in The New York Times, but has not been officially announced.