Closing Statements

Moderator Scott Gottlieb, MD, ended the Oncology Stakeholder Summit, Fall 2015, by asking the panel for closing statements.

Ted Okon, executive director of Community Oncology Alliance, said that one of the biggest things still to be addressed is site neutrality. Although he is encouraged by the Balanced Budget Act—through which, starting in 2017, a visit to a hospital outpatient facility and a visit to a physician’s office will both be paid under the Medicare physician fee schedule—he would like to see a little more legislative work done on the 340B program.

Kavita Patel, MD, MS, referred back to measurements of patient satisfaction, saying that current methods, like consumer assessments and survey tools, are crude and inconsistent. Meanwhile, the private sector continues to innovate in terms of measuring patient satisfaction, but their methods are not being integrated; payment models continue to roll out with mandated requirements for patient satisfaction and patient surveys. Dr Patel said she would like more flexibility in quality metrics, more latitude in clinician performance, and more enforcement with an outcomes-based transparency database.

John L. Fox, MD, MHA, spoke of the developments in the oncology sphere explaining, “Not only do we have the emergence of the oncology care model with CMI, we have new drug therapies especially with the PD-1 and PD-L1 antagonists. We have Medicare now approving advanced care planning and paying physicians and other healthcare providers to talk about what patients’ preferences are and what their priorities and their goals of care are. I think it's an exciting time because the people who will win in this are those who are willing to experiment and collaborate.” Dr Fox would like to have this collaboration across multiple organizations and stakeholders because they will lead the way to more affordable healthcare, and better patient outcomes and experiences.