Nine QCCA Practices Selected for National Oncology Care Model Initiative

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- The Quality Cancer Care Alliance (QCCA) announced that nine of its member practices have accepted the invitation to participate in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Oncology Care Model (OCM). The OCM is a new, voluntary payment initiative introduced by CMS' Innovation Center designed to support the transition to value-based care by advancing better care, smarter spending and healthier people.

"We are extremely proud that nine member practices were selected by CMS to participate in this exciting new program," said Sibel Blau, M.D., QCCA Chair and Medical Director at Northwest Medical Specialties, Tacoma, Washington. "QCCA practices have deep experience across our network in delivering care utilizing value-based reimbursement models. We are quite prepared to lead the way forward in a new era of cancer care."

CMS utilizes clinical data and quality measures as a key mechanism to verify clinical improvements, assess patient health outcomes and appropriate coordination of care, and ensure continued quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries. CMS will track participant performance on multiple quality domains using patient- and practice-reported measures as well as claims-based measures. Quality measures were selected for OCM across four of the National Quality Strategy Domains, including Communication and Care Coordination, Person and Caregiver-Centered Experience and Outcomes, Clinical Quality of Care, and Patient Safety. CMS will provide ongoing feedback to practices throughout the model. In addition, the model uses 12 of these quality measures in the calculation of participants' performance-based payments.

"Many of these requirements have already been met and implemented by practices across QCCA," noted Ray Page, DO PhD, President of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Ft. Worth, Texas. "In many areas QCCA practices are ahead of the curve, including evidence-based pathway integration and measuring patient reported outcomes. We have already applied lessons learned from our internal programs to enhance our care delivery processes and technology, and believe that it will benefit patients."

Practices participating in the five-year Oncology Care Model will provide treatment following nationally recognized clinical guidelines for beneficiaries undergoing chemotherapy, with an emphasis on patient -centered care. They will provide enhanced services to beneficiaries who are in OCM to help them receive timely, coordinated treatment.

"The move to value-based care will completely change the landscape of cancer care and impact all aspects of care delivery and reimbursement," added Brian Mitchell, MD, Medical Director of the Virginia Cancer Institute. "It is very exciting to be among the first to participate in this important transformation that emphasizes practice transformation in key performance areas such as delivering patient navigation and comprehensive care plans with specific components from the Institute of Medicine."

"Participating in this innovative program with CMS is part of QCCA's commitment to improving the quality and value of care we provide to our communities. We are excited to be included in this ground-breaking initiative in health care, as it will ultimately improve patient care across the country," said Dinesh Kapur, MD, Medical Director of Eastern Connecticut Hematology Oncology, Norwich, CT.

Keywords for this news article include: QCCA, Cancer, Medicare, Oncology, Health Policy, Quality of Care.

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