Tony Berberabe, MPH

A third of practice managers and health care executives who participated in a survey about value-based contracts said they expected the agreements to hurt the bottom line of their institution or practice

Health care professionals, including primary care physicians, cardiologists, oncologists, and psychiatrists are using their mobile devices (ie, smartphones and tablets) less, as compared to last year, and find themselves spending more time on a daily basis in front of their desktop computers

A regimen of nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) and gemcitabine is a cost-effective option for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer because it delivers a survival advantage at a price comparable to the cost of an existing combination therapy

Attendees of the Urology Joint Advocacy Conference were asked to focus on four goals as they left the Washington, DC gathering to meet with congressmen and senators on Capitol Hill.

Patients who receive genetic counseling before they undergo testing are educated about these tests and may have fewer unnecessary procedures

Bundled payments are no longer being relegated to pilot program status, according to a report from the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI3). Instead, more and more public and private payers are committing to this model as a core payment and delivery reform strategy.

A retrospective analysis of pharmacy and medical claims conducted by WellPoint shows that the costs to treat and care for cancer patients can be 3% to 14% less, depending on cancer type, when it is provided by oncologist-owned practices versus hospital-owned practices.

A new independently validated lab test is now available that takes advantage of the extensive database of gene mutations amassed by Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center.

The ballots are in, and 16 leading researchers whose discoveries have propelled the field of cancer treatment forward will be honored during the 2014 Giants of Cancer Care award ceremony on May 30 at Riva Restaurant on Navy Pier in Chicago.

Although the deadline for ICD-10 implementation has been moved to October 1, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has developed, in collaboration with physicians, a free tool that is specialty-specific and offers customizable, actionable advice and tips to ease physician practices through the transition to ICD-10.

Patients with advanced cancer who received early specialized palliative care reported better quality of life and satisfaction.

A new reimbursement program initiated by WellPoint, Inc., looks to pay oncologists an additional $350 a month for each patient who is enrolled in and follows one of the insurer's recommended cancer treatment regimens

Nearly 72% of office-based physician practices were using electronic health records (EHRs) in 2012, marking the slow and eventual decline of paper medical charts, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics. From 2007 through 2012, use of any type of EHR system increased across all physician and practice categories, with the exception of HMO-owned practices.

Physician practices that provide care to patients who have enrolled in the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) health exchanges are finding it difficult to complete some basic administrative tasks.

For patients whose colorectal cancer has spread to the liver, and confirmed by computed tomography (CT), further imaging scans before surgery added little benefit when compared to patients who did not undergo further imaging.

Community oncology practices are at a crossroads despite the maturity of the marketplace. Running an efficient oncology practice is getting tougher and tougher.

Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University's Kimmel Cancer Center have developed a model for the establishment of a comprehensive multidisciplinary geriatric oncology center to help combat the over or under treatment that elderly oncology patients often face.

Collecting payments from patients is difficult, so practices need to adapt so that collecting revenue from patients comes just as easily as collecting reimbursement from insurers.

The reductions in reimbursement for chemotherapy drugs after passage of the Medical Modernization Act (MMA) had a distinct effect on the administration of cancer drugs for patients in the last 14 days of life.

Despite repeated attempts to pass a permanent fix to address Medicare's sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, efforts by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have stalled again.

With the growth of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and cuts to reimbursement fees for chemotherapy that is administered in physician offices

Payment reform in oncology is not new, but since most of the models proposed in the past have required wholesale changes in practice, care delivery, or administrative structure, oncology practices have been reluctant to embrace significant change.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have released a tool to look up an individual clinician's reimbursement record, but its ease of use remains to be seen.

Richard S. Pelman, MD, Juan A. Reyna, MD, and David F. Penson, MD, all large urology organization leaders, cited managing bureaucracy, PSA screening, and in-office ancillaries as top priorities.

A review study of trends in patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer from 1975 to 2009 suggest the cancer has been overdiagnosed, and therefore overtreated, according to Louise Davies, MD, MS, and H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH.

Only 44% of large physician practices, hospitals, and health care systems have reported adopting a bundled payment system.

A physician's confidence level in his genomic knowledge plays a significant role in attitudes towards genomic tests, especially in tests that look for changes in DNA that are taken from patients' tumor samples

With the recent economic downturn and a proliferation of patients enrolled in high deductible health plans, oncology practices are placed in the unenviable position of having to collect payments from patients.

Employing nonphysician providers (NPPs) by physician practices has grown in the past 15 years

In addition to the clinical skills lectures included in medical school curriculum, second-year medical students at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, NJ, are also receiving a course in understanding the basics of billing and coding