Topics:

Aetna's oncology medical home will 'define the value of care'

Partnership with Moffit Cancer Center will serve as a model for value-based arrangements
Tools

Aetna has teamed with Tampa-based Moffitt Cancer Center to create an oncology medical home which intends to improve the care experience for cancer patients, the two organizations have announced. Aetna covers nearly 1.5 million Floridians and adopted the medical home oncology model back in 2013, according to Healthcare Payer News.

The model aims to gradually transition from fee-for-service payment models to value-based payments. "The collaboration between Aetna and Moffitt Cancer Center will help define the value of care and serve as a model for value-based arrangements with similar institutions," Michael Kolodziej, M.D., Aetna's national medical director for oncology, said in the announcement.

The oncology medical home focuses on the individual's entire cycle of care, the announcement said: Acute care, chronic care, preventive services and end-of-life care. Personal physicians, along with other qualified professionals, arrange for and provide a patient's healthcare needs.

Additionally, the model designs treatment programs based on recent medical evidence for each unique disease population, narrowing on patient-specific factors. Aetna and Moffitt focus on enhancing patients' access to care through open scheduling, expanding hours and more providing more personal physicians.

Elsewhere, in an effort to overhaul the entire oncology reimbursement system, Anthem created a cancer quality program that pays participating oncologists extra money for treatment planning and care coordination when they select a treatment regimen that is "on pathway" or matches Anthem's treatment guidelines.

These latest venture comes on the heels of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' announcement to implement new specialty payment and delivery models designed to improve oncology care at a lower costs for Medicare beneficiaries.

For more:
- here's the announcement
- here's the Healthcare Payer News article

Related Articles:
CMS aims to change how providers, payers pay for cancer treatment
Feds speed plans for value-based payments
UnitedHealth to bundle payment for MD Anderson Cancer Care
Anthem, UnitedHealth experiment with value-based oncology payment models