Abstract
Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief
As primary care and hospital readmissions rates have come under the watchful eye of CMS and private payers looking to deploy value-based reimbursement models, it only makes sense that medical specialties should prepare for the move away from fee-for-service payments. Cancer care is no exception.
With this dynamic in mind, a new oncology business, OneOncology, launched at the tail end of summer flush with an initial $200 million investment from equity firm General Atlantic (see story page 16). Its mission is simply stated: to provide its member community oncologists across the country with economies of scale, access to capital, and a common technology backbone that prepares them for value-based payment models.
The need for community cancer centers to find ways to band together is apparent, said Tracy Dahl, a co-founder and CEO of the company. The way Dahl sees it, community cancer centers—defined as physician-led and -owned practices that are independent from either a hospital system or academic medical center—are poised to take the lead in providing high-value care in the future. From a financial perspective, they are well on their way, delivering care that costs up to 60% less than similar care delivered in an acute care setting.
Now, to further this strength, OneOncology will leverage the technology expertise of Flatiron Health to provide a common technology and data backbone to all OneOncology member practices. The idea is to make it easy for all the community oncologists within the company’s network to share best practices, care pathways and other operational tidbits, including providing clinical decision support for precision care.
So why focus on community cancer centers? To begin with, according to the Community Oncology Alliance, nearly 55% of all people in this country battling cancer receive care in a community setting. Combine this with the double-edged sword of an aging population’s increasing cancer incidence, as well as people who develop cancer surviving longer than they ever have because of more effective treatments (meaning they make more visits to their community oncologists than they did in the past), and it is easy to see why many of these practices might need a helping hand.
That is where OneOncology believes it will make a difference—more efficient delivery of care allows practices the ability to provide care for more patients. Shared best practice improve care quality. Banded together, a collection of community oncologists numbering 1,000 or more physicians can get better prices on everything from paper clips to oncology drugs.
Top this off with providing individual community cancer centers with access to capital for expansion of services, the purchase of equipment, or to add locations and, on paper anyway, it looks like the management team at OneOncology has a significant opportunity ahead.