Cancer Care

Chicago, IL—The theme of the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting was “Making a Difference in Cancer Care With You.” The meeting attracted 38,000 attendees from around the world over 5 days.

As one part of an ongoing macrotheme regarding big data, understanding the benefits and limitations of using drug claims in employer-based population health is an important topic for employers in their health plan coverage strategies. Pharmacy claims are a common source of data used to describe the uses of cancer medications by employees and by their covered family members. Despite the availability of these data and a plethora of analyses, however, several limitations must be considered when interpreting drug use data.

Los Angeles, CA—Predictive testing offers greater value over prognostic testing to most stakeholders in cancer care, because it has a direct impact on disease treatment rather than simply predicting the course of the disease (which is, ironically, the role of prognostic testing), said S. Macey Johnson III, MBA, Vice President, Managed Care and Reimbursement, bioTheranostics, San Diego, CA, at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care.

Chicago, IL—The question of value in oncology continues to pose challenges for oncologists and payers alike, as the costs of therapy continue to rise and health plans are wrestling with the need to design insurance coverage that promotes value.

Washington, DC—A new framework for transforming cancer care by harnessing the meaningful use criteria of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was proposed by a team of researchers at the 2013 American Medical Informatics Association meeting.

The cancer care landscape is rapidly evolving, in light of promising new therapies, as well as changing reimbursement strategies in response to the healthcare reform.

What is the most important challenge faced by a person who is diagnosed with cancer today? Opinions will differ, but most patients want to be assured that they will work with a group of multispecialty physicians who will provide recommendations for care that provide the best possible outcomes, that all options for effective treatment will be available to them, that care will be provided in a safe and comfortable hospital or other facility, and that the healthcare staff will care about their problems and concerns with managing treatment, professional issues, and family issues.

Medicare may be paying for more screening colonos - copies than are warranted for the prevention of colorectal cancer (CRC), according to a new study (Goodwin JS, et al. Arch Intern Med. 2011 May 9 [Epub ahead of print]).

Most professional guidelines now recommend screening for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in essentially all patients receiving chemotherapy, but it is seldom performed and is not cost-effective in patients with solid (nonhematologic) tumors, according to studies presented at ASCO 2011.