The Community Oncology Alliance, a nonprofit group of medical practitioners who deliver cancer care across the country, is working with Congress on the Quality Cancer Care Demonstration (QCCD) project, the "architecture of a solution to today's cancer care crisis."
U.S. Reps. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) and Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio) have introduced H.R. 2872, the Medicare Quality Cancer Care Demonstration Act of 2009, which would authorize Congress to direct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to implement the QCCD.
"As we address the healthcare crisis in this country, we can't allow cancer care to fall by the wayside," said Davis. "This bill would expand the availability and quality of care for millions of cancer patients and is a step in the right direction in closing the inequities in the payment system. This bill will help ensure an adequate level of both early treatment and end of life care for patients facing cancer."
The QCCD is a multi-phased project that involves medical providers collecting data and implementing a patient-centric program that rewards quality cancer care while controlling costs. The objective is to combine two critical patient enhancing components: treatment planning and end-of-life care.
In the program, the COA would assemble oncologists from practices across the country with advanced electronic medical records for cutting edge data to supplement Medicare claims presented to the CMS. This structure would ideally lead to a system that ensures quality cancer care while controlling costs.
Officials say the QCCD incorporates the fundamental elements in the healthcare reform debate – quality care delivery, evidence based medicine, care coordination, cost control and health information technology.
An increase in drug costs, combined with a decline in Medicare reimbursements and the financial crisis, has forced many cancer patients to abandon their treatment. This includes Americans with inadequate or no insurance as well as seniors who can't afford to pay the Medicare 20 percent co-insurance. Approximately 45 percent of cancer patients are covered by Medicare.
"The Quality Cancer Care Demonstration project offers a means of moving forward immediately and the architecture for a solution to the current crisis in cancer care," said Patrick Cobb, MD, president of the COA and managing partner of Hematology-Oncology Centers of the Northern Rockies in Billings, Mont. "All Americans deserve access to quality, affordable healthcare. And before we can repair healthcare in general, we must fix this broken system."
The CMS cwill implement the new progfram, if approved by Congress, through current coding and data collection systems. The alliance will augment the collected data from practices that have deployed advanced electronic medical record systems.
Additionally, the COA will offer the QCCD to private payers in an attempt to launch a national initiative designed to enhance the delivery of quality, affordable and accessible cancer care.