Tony Hagen

Jennie R. Crews, MD, FACP, discusses how her 18 years of diverse activity in the oncology sector would translate into strong leadership for the Association of Community Cancer Centers and its membership of 20,000.

Aligning physician compensation to performance can be a dicey matter, as it is difficult to reach a consensus on how to measure physician success. However, a number of oncology practices have been developing systems for doing this and achieving success.

Oral parity legislation for getting newer drugs to patients under similar coverage terms as for older drugs often involves a battle that doesn’t stop when a law is passed.

Biologic chemotherapy spending soared several hundred percent from 2004 to 2014; but despite rising treatment costs in general, oncology spending kept pace with spending for all categories of medical care.

The NCCN's Evidence Blocks need further data and refinement to overcome subtleties of distinction in drug performance, but they’re the best value system developed so far, NCCN officials reported at their 2016 Annual Conference.

Experts debated whether platinum-based or other additional systemic agents be used in high-risk triple-negative breast cancer, as well as other treatment discussions in breast cancer.

A study published recently offers help to physicians in recognizing which of their patients would experience heightened sensitivity to the financial strain of cancer care.

Breast cancer survivor and Good Morning America news anchor Amy Robach delivered a compelling keynote address at the 33rd Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference®.

There is no clearly acceptable answer to the question of what is the appropriate margin for ductal carcinoma in situ.

Carboplatin shows promise in treating metastatic BRCA-mutated triple negative breast cancer.

Physicians who have been active in clinical trials programs were divided in their opinions of how well the Moonshot initiative would succeed, and whether it would benefit independent oncology practices.

The 2016 Community Oncology Conference, Innovation in Cancer Care: Moving From Theory to Practice, from April 13-15, will feature an expanded lineup of clinical presentations.

The Hatch Waxman Act, established in 1984 to promote lower cost generics production, is deeply flawed and has contributed to the maintenance of high drug prices.

Patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer should be screened for social isolation and financial hardship, as these factors play a role in their ability to stay on medication, minimize hospital stays, and achieve optimal health outcomes.

For one group of physicians in Seattle, hooking up with US Oncology seemed like a good idea at first, until circumstances changed and the deal no longer was a benefit for any of the partners.

Newer, more stringent USP 800 regulations on cleanrooms are a couple of years off, thanks to a postponement of implementation, but they're still a worry for independent oncology practices, whose in-house pharmacy staff may sit up nights wondering about the stability of their drug revenues.

Finding the right partner can lead to a much higher level of practice for physicians, as well as broader responsibilities that add fulfillment to one’s career.

Though they often lend strength to oncology practices by combining through mergers and affiliations, radiologists are feeling pressure to demonstrate the importance of their work, as the value transition brings increasing scrutiny to levels of waste, inaccuracy, utility, and technological sophistication in their trade.

Looking back on 2015 in the field of oncology practice, a lot of the groundwork was laid for what the Association of Community Cancer Centers predicted in a fall report: “increased reliance on team-based care and care provided by nonphysicians.”

A fresh study of the much exploited 340B Drug Discount Program says that draft guideline revisions under consideration would likely not be successful because the Health Resource and Services Administration does not have the statutory authority to impose or to enforce them.

Unsuccessful efforts have been made to improve the quality of information provided to consumers about advertised drugs, and against that backdrop, the American Medical Association has called for an outright ban on direct-to-consumer drug advertising.

Tremendous consolidation of remaining independent oncology practices is very likely under scenarios.

The high cost of deductibles and copays under Affordable Care Act health exchange policies is a barrier in oncological care that renders the discussion of patient involvement in therapy choices somewhat moot.

The signing of the Budget Act of 2015 may have brought to a screeching halt much of the hospital merger activity that has characterized the community oncology practice sphere in recent years.

Several elements of the Maintenance of Certification for certifying physician competency that were suspended temporarily in February will remain in cold storage until 2018, while the ABIM works to develop a plan that is more acceptable to its physician members.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, discussed new developments in cancer treatment and the potential for conquering this scourge once and for all.

With the rapid pace of change in precision medicine, insurance companies and federal policymakers are going to have to adjust for far more variance in the ways patients are treated, even though insurance plans and federal policy by nature require a measure of standardization.

The problem with FDA involvement in the regulation of molecular diagnostics testing is not only the esoteric scientific behind them but also the rapid-fire developments in the field that can make slow moving FDA determinations irrelevant by the time they become official.

The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and the Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APM) announced earlier this year should not constrain physicians from self-driven innovation or deprive them of evaluation by generally accepted tools of performance measurement, ASCO told the CMS in a formal letter this month.

The American Society of Hematology said it is deeply unsatisfied with the findings of a task force that convened to review Maintenance of Certification standards for the American Board of Internal Medicine.