Kim Woofter on the Importance of Outside Partnerships for Community Oncology Practices

Creating outside partnerships for community oncology practices is important because these partnerships move the industry towards value-based payment models, said Kim Woofter, executive vice president of strategic alliances and practice innovation at the Advanced Centers for Cancer Care.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What is the importance of setting up outside partnerships for a community oncology practice to be successful?

I think oncology practices today really need to set up partnerships with data analytics firms, which is a little bit different than it was years ago. Years ago, you set up partnerships with hospitals, or other practices, or neighboring primary care. Data analytics now gives you the tool to work with a new set of partners—basically the employer. I think that’s what we see in our market the most is the data analytics we have in relation to cost-of-care, site-of-service, and how better-to-do care management has led employers to do some direct contracting, to do some channeling of their employees, and then has helped to encompass the team a little bit differently.

So, it’s different now than it was 5 and 10 years ago, and our focus most recently has been on data analytics, so you better understand your population and your business model and then to partner that with employers.

How do these partnerships help as the industry moves more toward value-based payment models?

They’re helping because we’re doing a lot of care management. In your value-based care model you have to have true control over the whole continuum of care for the patient. So, that’s everything from toxicity management to end-of-life management. If you’re truly going to get value, you have to have control of that sector and that data analytics helps you to do that.