Panel Challenges Vendor Authority Under Part B : The program was designed to ease the burden on physicians by taking them out of the financial loop.

The program's launch was originally scheduled for January 2006, but it was delayed for 6 months after the CMS announced the suspension of the vendor bidding process to allow more time for review of public comments. The agency expects to publish a final rule on the CAP in late 2005, which would reopen the bidding process. Drugs could be first delivered under the program by July 2006.