HHS teams with 3,200 doctors to boost coordination in oncology care

Nearly 200 physician’s groups (including 3,200 doctors) and 17 health insurance companies will work together with the government in an effort to provide better cancer care, HHS announced June 29.

The organization, called the Oncology Care Model, will run for five years, starting in July, and will cover more than 155,000 Medicare beneficiaries, HHS said in a statement announcing the new initiative.

The goal of the care model is to improve coordination between patients’ oncologists and other doctors, encourage quality through performance-based payments, lower costs and provide extra resources to patients such as support groups and pain management help. The program’s objectives all fall under “patient-centered care.”

“The Oncology Care Model encourages greater collaboration and information sharing so that cancer patients get the care they need,” HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said in the statement.

The new measure is part of the Obama administration’s implementation of the ACA, is organized under CMS and fits in with Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer “moonshot” initiative.