Tony Berberabe, MPH

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

Epizyme, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech, opted for independence, with a successful IPO in 2013.

Among physicians, oncologists fall slightly above the middle in terms of compensation, with average earnings reported at $290,000.

Even as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) examines the implications of the ICD-10 delay there are some steps oncology and hematology practice managers can take now before the rollout gets into full swing.

Small oncology practices employing fewer than 50 full-time employees might consider looking to the Small Business Health Options Program offered through the Affordable Care Act.

A delay in the launch of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) web site that tracks the financial relationship between physician and industry may prevent physicians from fully reviewing the data.

Buckling to calls for transparency and a Wall Street Journal court case requiring the agency to provide public access to physician billing records, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a database containing transactions worth $77 billion by 880,000 physicians and physician practices certified to collect from Medicare

Community oncologists and hematologists who participate in the Medicare Electronic Health Records Incentive Program may be subject to fee adjustments from the agency beginning January 1, 2015.

The use of immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer has had limited exposure, but Aduro BioTech, Inc, has had phase II success with an approach in which two vaccines are administered. The vaccines, GVAX Pancreas and CRS-207, are administered to patients sequentially.

While the sustainable growth rate (SGR) debate has been put off for 2014, what should physicians be looking to as the transition to ICD-10 has been delayed for the second time in two years?

Providers cited issues related to insufficient standards, concerns about how privacy rules can vary among states, difficulties in matching patients to their records, and costs associated with exchange

The Senate is expected to consider and vote on a bill passed by the House on March 27 that includes language to patch the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for 12 months and delay ICD-10 implementation until at least October 1, 2015

Provider-based research networks (PBRNs) make clinical trials available to community-based practices.

It looks like trouble continues for a bill that would delay payment cuts to physicians who treat Medicare patients for one year

Practice managers who need to understand the ins and outs of Medicare's resource-based relative value scale (RBRVS) can purchase an updated physician guide from the American Medical Association.

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

Founded in 1987, Gilead Sciences made a name for itself in 1996, when it launched Vistide, a treatment for cytomegalovirus retinitis in patients with AIDS.

Small practices face all the difficulties of health IT implementation without the benefit of big budgets and numerous staff to diffuse the burdens, according to EHRIntelligence.com.

Patients were no more likely to switch away from lower-tiered physicians than higher-tiered physicians within their health plan, especially if the physician was considered the patient's personal doctor

Efforts to evaluate cancer survivorship programs are a daunting task according to a technical brief issued by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

After months of wrangling, a call for a vote by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on an amended version of the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2014 (H.R. 4015).

Converting from ICD-9 to ICD-10 will result in information and financial losses to providers, report researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago

Evidence that demonstrates how best to implement newer value-based purchasing (VBP) programs like accountable care organizations (ACOs) and bundled payments is lacking

The US cancer care system is faced with increasing cuts to Medicare payments, the prospect of a dramatic increase in the number of patients with cancer, and proportionately fewer oncology specialists to treat them.

More oncology practices are looking to advanced practice nurses and other non-physician providers to meet the needs of their cancer patients.