Interviews

Jeff Patton, MD, chief executive officer of Tennessee Oncology, weighs in on Oncology Care Model (OCM) performance period 4 results and taking on 2-sided risk.

Amila Patel, PharmD, BCOP, technical lead, Clinical Oncology, Flatiron Health, offers details on new clinical workflow features that will address some of the pain points clinicians have with the electronic medical record system.

In the past few years, benefit designs have led to a reduction of both low-value and high-value care, and moving forward, new designs have to be tied more directly to value-based reimbursement, said Michael Thompson, president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

Terrill Jordan, chief executive officer of Regional Cancer Care Associates, discusses Oncology Care Model performance period 4 results and the biggest challenges community oncologists continue to face when trying to perform under the model.

When measuring disease severity and progression in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), there are several approaches that provide different information and have varying strengths and weaknesses, according to Daniel Kantor, MD, president of Kantor Neurology.

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) over the last couple of years has helped us to look at things that we didn’t really think of from an oncology perspective, explained Nina Chavez, MBA, FACMPE, chief operating officer, New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants, Ltd.

Tesh Khullar, senior vice president & advisor, Flatiron Health, discusses the first to anticancer biosimilars having recently entered the market.

Employers have been talking about low-value care for years, but they’re trying to identify to remove the use of those services, said Michael Thompson, president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

The development and access to orphan indications rely on reimbursement models that require regulatory action toward out-of-pocket costs for patients, said Scott Gottlieb, MD, former FDA commissioner (2017-2019).

Michael Kolodziej, MD, vice president and chief innovation officer at ADVI Health, Inc., discusses the move to 2-sided risk in the Oncology Care Model (OCM).

Lee Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, executive director, West Cancer Center, offers his view on the US Preventive Services Task Force's (USPSTF's) updated recommendation for risk assessment, genetic counseling, and genetic testing for BRCA-related cancer.

While there are concerns about the overdiagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS), underdiagnosis is also a serious problem that can lead to patients not receiving treatment for MS, explained Daniel Kantor, MD, president of Kantor Neurology.

CMS is trying to make a 2-sided risk model in the Oncology Care Model enticing for practices, but there is still a lot of math practices need to work out before making the decision, said Blase Polite, MD, associate professor of medicine and the executive director for accountable care at the University of Chicago.

The more engaged patients who have more access to their data and are more informed about what’s going on are actually going to have better outcomes most of the time, explained James Hamrick, MD, senior medical director at Flatiron Health.

Migraines and cluster headaches can have devastating consequences on people’s lives, and there is a need to educate the public about the impact these disorders can have, said Abraham Nagy, MD, chair of neurology at University of Las Vegas and director of Nevada Headache Institute.

Novel therapies come with high costs, but they have the potential to more effectively treat some patients, and employers are struggling to handle the cost burden of them, said Michael Thompson, president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

Providing access to complex therapies through the Medicare market can benefit patients who are disproportionately ignored by socioeconomic status, said Scott Gottlieb, MD, former FDA commissioner (2017-2019).

The only thing that should matter in these patients is their genetic code, but often it’s your zip code that really restrains your ability to access the healthcare you deserve, explained Ahmar Zaidi, MD, pediatric hematologist-oncologist, Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, Children's Hospital of Michigan, when discussing the possibility of a gene therapy for sickle cell.

Since the introduction of disease-modifying therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS), evidence from disease registries has shown how the therapies work in the real world and reduce the effect of MS on people’s lives, according to Daniel Kantor, MD, president of Kantor Neurology.

Lani M. Alison, BSN, MS, HCQ, PCMH, CCE, vice president of Clinical Affairs, Regional Cancer Care Associates, explains how the implementation of the Oncology Care Model (OCM) allowed practices to better integrate palliative care.

Albert Rizzo, MD, FACP, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association, discusses the prevalence of overtreatment and undertreatment in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Real-world outcomes are important because the populations included in clinical trials rarely reflect the populations actually being treated in the clinic, said Ajai Chari, MD, associate professor of medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mount Sinai Hospital.

Innovation that transform cancer care delivery have to be multi-level, explained Iuliana Shapira, MD, chief medical officer, Regional Cancer Care Associates.

Using imaging, laboratory testing, and predictive models, the field of multiple sclerosis (MS) is getting closer to predicting the course of MS and, eventually, the best medication for a given patient, said Daniel Kantor, MD, president of Kantor Neurology.

Employers have become more aware of how key an issue mental health is for employees and they are relieving some of the perceived stigma by making it okay to talk about mental health issues, said Michael Thompson, president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

John Fox, MD, MHA, vice president of Clinical Transformation at Spectrum Health, discusses management challenges still facing providers treating multiple myeloma.

The field of treatments for multiple sclerosis (MS) has grown quickly in the last 30 years, but the next new class of therapies probably won’t come to market for at least another year and a half, said Daniel Kantor, MD, president of Kantor Neurology.

Neil Minkoff, MD, chief medical officer and vice president, EmpiraMed, discusses his hopes if the first gene therapy for sickle cell disease is approved and if he has any concerns with payer reactions.

Lani M. Alison, BSN, MS, HCQ, PCMH, CCE, vice president of Clinical Affairs, Regional Cancer Care Associates, explains the questions that patients have about oncology care pathways and treatment guidelines.

Currently, employers choose health plans based on administrative costs and provider discounts, but they need to start engaging around value-based reimbursement, said Michael Thompson, president and chief executive officer of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.