Cancer

Care Guidance featured in thought leadership article published in peer-reviewed OncoZine reaching the International Oncology Network. Access full article here:  https://www.oncozine.com/advancing-health-equity-for-oncology-patients/ Providing a blue print for stakeholders in oncology to resolve certain inequalities in cancer care that are linked to Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), including level of education, occupation, income, sex, race, ethnicity, place of residence […]

Cancer is a deadly disease that has affected countless individuals throughout the world. Quality cancer care is essential for improving outcomes and ultimately saving lives. However, measuring quality in cancer care can be challenging due to its complexity and the multiple stakeholders involved. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans have launched the Radiation […]

Oncology care is essential to help manage and prevent the progression of cancer. With technological advancements, risk assessment software is becoming increasingly available to help providers make better-informed decisions regarding their patients’ care. The latest Enhancing oncology care model provides a comprehensive set of tools that allow providers to make more efficient, evidence-based decisions. These […]

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to roll out the Radiation Oncology Model (ROM) in January 2022, which will cover radiotherapy episodes of care. Participation is mandatory in select zip codes—you can access the current list here—and will cover physician group practices, hospital outpatient departments, and freestanding radiation therapy centers. To help providers […]

As an industry, we agree that COVID-19 has made an indelible impact on how we practice healthcare in the United States. The virus’s influence is apparent in those industry segments that treat the most complex and vulnerable patient populations, with cancer serving as a palpable embodiment of COVID-19’s effects. Three significant trends in cancer care […]

LexisNexis Highlights How Stay at Home Orders Have Impacted Preventive Screenings, Diagnoses Information and analytics provider LexisNexis recently reported that stay-at-home orders have led to alarming trends in preventive screenings for cancer, with reductions of up to 91% in April and May 2020, when compared to the same time period in 2019. The decrease in […]

CMS recently announced the Radiation Oncology Model (RO Model or RO-APM), a mandatory, episode-based payment model for radiotherapy (RT) services. CMS states that the goals of the model are to “improve the quality of care for cancer patients receiving radiotherapy…and move toward a simplified and predictable payment system.” The new radiation oncology alternative payment model […]

The term patient-reported outcomes (PROs) refers to a health outcome directly based on patient self-reporting. PROs are a key aspect of clinical trials and treatments, and in modern health care settings, many organizations are transitioning away from pen-and-paper data collection methods and moving to electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs). Analog vs. Digital Research has shown there […]

OCM 2.0 is a proposed alternative to the current Oncology Care Model (OCM) program, and was created by the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) in June 2019. COA submitted OCM 2.0 to the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC), an advisory committee that evaluates physician-focused payment models for the Secretary of Health and Human Services […]

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is an episode-based payment model designed to provide high quality, highly coordinated oncology care at low cost. In order to assess and verify clinical outcomes, patient outcomes, and coordination of care, as well as ensure continued quality of care, CMS measures OCM participants’ performance using quality measures from four of […]

A Monthly Enhanced Oncology Services (MEOS) payment is part of the two-part payment system specific to the Oncology Care Model (OCM). Under OCM, participating Medicare-enrolled physician groups continue to receive regular fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare payments, but also receive a MEOS payment of $160 per-beneficiary for delivery of “enhanced services,” as well as a retrospective performance-based […]

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is an episode-based payment model developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center (CMMI) in order to improve the quality of care cancer patients receive at the same or lower cost. According to the National Cancer Institute, “In 2018, an estimated 1,735,350 new cases of cancer [were] […]