Dr Bryan Loy on Mandatory Bundled Payments and the Role of Payers

Payers, providers, and other stakeholders have to come together to figure out how to make a better patient member experience for those who are fighting cancer, said Bryan Loy, MD, physician lead, oncology, laboratory, and personalized medicine, Humana.

Transcript

What impact could a mandatory bundled payment in oncology, like what HHS has announced, have on cancer care?

The bundle payments will bring back to the forefront the idea of being able to put quality and patient experience first, but it will also allow us to revisit how we engage providers and help them reduce administrative burden. They can have reliable and dependable payment and reduce some of that friction that, quite frankly, fee-for-service has created.

How do you expect value-based care in oncology to continue to evolve?

I believe we’re going to have to look at oncology care not just through the current lens of delivery but also in the adoption of new technology. We’ve got to look at it in terms of, who are the major stakeholders that could influence the patient-care experience, whether it be the caregiver, whether it be the employer, whether it be some community agency, or other assets. This all can’t rest on the shoulders of the delivery system. We as a payer, and providers, and other elements of the community, we’ve got to combine some of those assets to figure out how to make a better patient-member experience for those that are fighting cancer.