Travis Brewer Talks Collaboration Between Payers and Oncologists in Value-Based Care

Knowing the payer and knowing what they're willing to do to expand value-based care is crucial for improving cancer care, says Travis Brewer, vice president of payer relations, Texas Oncology. Brewer will appear at the Institute for Value-Based Medicine^® June 8, 2023 event, held with The American Journal of Managed Care^® and Texas Oncology.

Transcript

Why is collaboration between payers and oncology practices so important in providing patients with value-based care?

It all starts really with the payers and what they're willing to do from an expansion of access to value-based care. They really hold the purse strings.

It's also important to understand who the payer really is in this environment. In Texas, 70% or more of the commercial population that we see are self-funded plan sponsors; the employers are paying the bills versus a more traditional, fully insured model.

It really requires the payers willingness to put programs in place, but it also requires that the employers are on board with putting forward more quality focused, cost-effective, value-based models.

What are specific ways in which payers can collaborate with health care providers and oncology specialists to develop and implement value-based strategies in cancer care?

I think the key thing there is the provision of data, actionable data. A lot of the things that we are measured on in a lot of the value-based care models are things like hospital admission rates, presentation to emergency departments, the use of biosimilars where they're available in the chemo drug space, as well as generic prescribing, or prescribing of oral oncolytics in general.

Data from the health plans is very important, but it has to be actionable. It has to be something that we can take and bend some of the trend on, if you will; things that we can work with our local sites, our doctors, our nurse case managers, and all of the tools and resources that we bring to bear to help move the needle on some of the some of the value-based programs.