Dr Marianne Fazen Discusses New Ways to Educate Employers on Value in Cancer Care

Through the use of workshops and other productions, the Texas Business Group on Health educates employers on how they can maximize value through oncology care innovations like precision medicine, according to Marianne Fazen, PhD, president and CEO of the Texas Business Group on Health.

Transcript (slightly modified)

How does the Texas Business Group on Health help meet the goals of all stakeholders, including patients?

We are a coalition of employers, and our mission is to educate employers on how to get the best value out of their healthcare dollars. So we’ve been doing programs on oncology care management, how to do it more effectively. For example, we’ve had workshops on specialty pharmacy management, the best way to do that.

We had another workshop on precision medicine. Most of our employers had never heard of precision medicine, how to do genetic testing for the right treatment, and they were very surprised and checked with their health plans. And the health plans said “yes, we cover it.” “Well, why didn’t you tell me?” “Well, you didn’t ask!” So you know, kind of the catch 22.

And then we also did a 4-act stage production on cancer care in which we have all of the different caregivers and other people and parties involved in the patient’s journey from diagnosis through treatment through return to work. And they help the audience see, feel, and hear and experience what each of the different parties involved in the care are experiencing as well as what the employee and the employer are going through.