Dr Lawrence Shulman Discusses the Role of Rising Drug Costs in Value-Based Care

Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, director of the Center for Global Cancer Medicine at the Abramson Cancer Center, and professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, explains how providers are reacting to more effective, more costly therapies entering the cancer landscape.

Transcript

As drug costs continue to rise, is value-based care changing the way providers make treatment decisions for patients with cancer?

I think the good news is, over the last couple of years, we’ve had a lot of new cancer therapies, which have radically changed the prognosis for our patients in diseases like melanoma and lung cancer. But, I think we all know those new treatments have come with a huge cost. They are so much better in so many cases than our old treatments. I don’t think oncologists or other specialists, in fact, make decisions based on cost. They make decisions based on what the best therapies are that are available for their patients, and particularly when there’s a big difference between the new therapy and the old therapy.