Dr Julie Vose Weighs in on Value Calculators, MACRA

Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and keynote speaker at this year's Patient-Centered Oncology Care meeting, discusses addressing cost of care, using value calculators, and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act.

Transcript (slightly modified)

How does ASCO's Value Framework help to address cost of care?

ASCO Value Framework really takes it back to what we really do for patients. Right now what happens is the cost of the drug has to cover the cost of a lot of what we do for patients that are not reimbursed. This really takes back so the cost of getting the patient information, the of following up on the patient, the cost of clinical trials, all those costs that are currently not covered are helped by this new Value Framework in trying to make sure that we can improve that outcome for patients.

What is the importance of value calculators being created and how can they be incorporated into shared decision making?

The information that we give to patients right now has very little cost information, so the value calculators try to put together what's the outcome for that specific regimen or treatment. What's the cost of that drug? What are the side effects of those drugs? And compares it to a standard of care and that way it helps the patient and the physician to have shared decision making.

What does the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) get right and what could be improved upon?

Well I think MACRA gets right that we should move away from fee-for-service. I think we need to be able to make sure we can provide care to patients in an organized fashion, quality-based, but not necessarily having it in a fee-for-service fashion as some unintended consequences sometimes are you get paid for what you do. I think that part is right, it's just a matter of how do we define that, how do we improve upon that to make sure that we can still get everything paid for.