Nina Chavez: OCM Has Made Community Oncologists Better Business People

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.

Transcript

A few years into the Oncology Care Model and other value-based models, have community oncologists gotten better at practicing the business of oncology?

It’s a difficult question in the sense that community oncology, they weren’t businessmen. Doctors don’t go to medical school to get a business degree and unfortunately, in our healthcare environment, if you’re going to be an independent practice, you have to understand the business of medicine that you’re in, and I think that OCM over the last couple of years has helped us too look at things that we didn’t really think of from an oncology perspective.

You’re always looking at the patient first, you’re always looking at that patient outcome, but now we have to look at the total cost of care, we have to look at that patient engagement piece—not just saying that we did it, but documenting it and having those documented interactions, which is something for more the payers than really the patient.

So, I do think that oncologists have become better business people because they’ve had to in order to survive in this environment and be able to take care of their patients in a better way.