What is the Enhancing Oncology Model (EOM)?

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is dead. The Oncology Care Model was a voluntary, alternative payment model (APM), that “included financial and performance accountability for episodes of care surrounding chemotherapy administration to cancer patients.” OCM expired at the end of June 2022, and will be replaced by the Enhancing Oncology Model. EOM is a also…

VA vs. private hospitals

How do efficiently is care provided for patients at Veteran Affairs’ hospitals as compared to private hospitals? This is not an easy question to answer as the composition of patients differs between these hospitals. Even among dually-eligible individuals–those with both VA and commercial insurance–individuals treated at VA hospitals are generally more severely ill. To better…

FDA Guidance: Methods for identifying what is important to patients

What disease components are most burdensome to patients? How do researchers find this information out? To answer this question, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently put out its second guidance document on Patient-Focused Drug Development: Methods to Identify What Is Important to Patients. A few qualitative approaches they recommend to collect this information include:…

Challenges facing the accountable care organization (ACO) system

An interesting article in Modern Healthcare reviews some discussion at a recent Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) meeting. The first issue is that the pool of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries is shrinking, at least on a relative basis. As Medicare Advantage grows each year, population-based alternative payment models like accountable care organizations are left with a…