The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), submitted its Patient-Centered Oncology Payment (PCOP) model for consideration by the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC). PTAC is an advisory group to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which sends recommendations to the Secretary of HHS on stakeholder proposals for a type of alternative payment model known as a physician-focused payment model (PFPM).
The ASCO Patient-Centered Oncology Payment: A Community-Based Oncology Medical Home Model is an oncology-specific PFPM, offering a complete solution for making the transition from fee-for-service to value-based cancer care delivery. Specifically, ASCO’s data show significant potential for PCOP to yield cost savings—up to 8% across the healthcare system—while helping to ensure that patients have access to high-quality, high-value care.
“ASCO seeks to work with providers; federal, state and private payers; employers; regional health networks; patient advisors and others to build multi-stakeholder communities that would implement all or specific elements of the model,” said ASCO in its submission letter. “The support of the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee and participation by the Medicare and Medicaid programs would advance this model in its intent to establish communities of providers and payers working together to improve cancer care delivery.”
PCOP’s design places particular emphasis on implementing “PCOP communities”—multidisciplinary networks of oncology providers and practices; federal, state, and private payers; employers; and regional health networks—aligned to support patient-centered care. This focus provides the following benefits:
- For patients, it offers access to an enhanced patient experience and state-of-the-art cancer care.
- For providers, it enables a successful transition to value-based systems.
- For employers and health plans, it offers a powerful way to incentivize quality and constrain costs.
Read the submission letter and learn more about PCOP.
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