January 2017

Compared with other specialists, medical oncologists are not often the target of malpractice litigation. Even so, they still get sued.

The Community Oncology Alliance got most of its 2016 Christmas list. CVS Caremark dropped its plan to cut physician-owned dispensaries out of Medicare Part D oral drug distribution, CMS eased off the gas pedal on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, and the Medicare Part B Drug Payment Model has been discontinued for now.

Kashyap Patel, MD, saw the first signs that fee-for-service was doomed eight years ago. He was serving on South Carolina’s Medicaid board when he received a report about CMS’s plans to test new payment models.

Over the past 30 years, I have regularly attended annual meetings of the American Society of Hematology, where experts from around the globe convene to share the latest advances.

Watson for Oncology is the name of the new iteration from IBM. It achieved 90% concordance with tumor boards at the Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Center in Bengaluru, India, according to results presented at the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

For independent oncology practices, 2016 was a year of struggle—struggle to achieve new levels of reporting to CMS, and struggle to improve interaction with patients and coordination of care.

Florida is a leader in the consolidation trend, topping the nation in the number of practices that have closed, merged, or been acquired in recent years.

Boston-based Berg Health is attempting to do away with a traditional form of scientific inquiry in an attempt to find better answers.