ASCO's Task Force on Clinical Pathways demands greater transparency with pathway development, increased flexibility, and evidence of improved outcomes subsequent to pathway implementation.
Clinical pathways—developed internally by clinics or recommended by healthcare payers—are rapidly being adopted into clinical practice. Clinical pathways are a means to increase clinical transparency, stratify available options, and use the most “valuable” treatment plan. However, implementing payer-determined clinical pathways has raised numerous concerns among physicians, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has released a policy statement on clinical pathways in oncology that address some of these concerns.
Developed by a Task Force on Clinical Pathways, established by ASCO’s Board of Directors, the recommendations aim to promote evidence-based, high-value care that respects the demands of patients, payers, and providers.
“It's time to seriously examine the way clinical pathways are designed and implemented to ensure they consistently enhance, rather than diminish, patient care,” said ASCO President Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, FASCO. Said in an associated press release. “In too many cases, clinical pathways are undermining physicians' ability to optimally care for their patients with cancer and limiting patient choice.”
Payers have been offering incentives to providers for using oncology pathways, the authors write, which include increased reimbursement and case management fees for adherence, shared savings, and risk sharing. For practices that are a part of an accountable care organization, clinical pathways can help integrate care delivery if the practices do not share a common electronic health record. As a major player in payment reform, adoption of pathway programs has also been shown to save costs.
There are limitations to the use of clinical pathways, however, and ASCO’s policy statement points to a number of issues that may pose significant barriers to providing high-quality, evidence-based cancer care. ASCO is calling for clinical pathways to better accommodate the diverse circumstances and characteristics of patients with cancer. Pathways should be expanded to address the full spectrum of cancer care and updated regularly to reflect the latest in evidence-based clinical practice. ASCO is also calling for a reduction in the administrative burden that pathways place on physicians, so that more time can be devoted to serving patients.
Following are the concerns raised by the Task Force about the way in which clinical pathway programs are currently developed and implemented in oncology practice:
Robin T. Zon, MD, FACP, FASCO, chair of the Task Force, pointed to the cookie-cutter approach of some of the clinical pathways, highlighting the contradiction it creates with the current environment of personalized medicine. “When doctors diverge from a clinical pathway, even for well-justified reasons, payers are likely to either deny coverage or require prior authorization, which can delay treatment and threaten patients' health,” Zon said in an associated press release by ASCO.
Another concern is the growing administrative burden on physicians, who already report spending as much as one-sixth of their day on paperwork,3 limiting time with their patients. At ASCO’s annual meeting last year, Zon spoke to the audience on the impact of these growing physician administrative burdens on healthcare.
The ASCO policy statement includes the following key recommendations to improve the development and use of clinical pathways in oncology:
Standard Criteria for Loss of Ambulation Needed in DMD
April 19th 2024A recent study suggests the differences between ambulation definitions for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can impact the identification of ambulant vs nonambulant individuals, and standard criteria across settings are needed.
Read More
Government agencies have created an online portal for the public to report potential anticompetitive practices in health care; there are changes coming to the “boxed warning” section for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies (CAR T) to highlight T-cell blood cancer risk; questions about the safety of obesity medications during pregnancy have arisen in women on them who previously struggled with fertility issues.
Read More
Oncology Onward: A Conversation With Penn Medicine's Dr Justin Bekelman
December 19th 2023Justin Bekelman, MD, director of the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation, sat with our hosts Emeline Aviki, MD, MBA, and Stephen Schleicher, MD, MBA, for our final episode of 2023 to discuss the importance of collaboration between academic medicine and community oncology and testing innovative cancer care delivery in these settings.
Listen
Gene, Light Therapy Combo Shows Promise Against Prostate Cancer Cells in Proof-of-Concept Study
April 18th 2024In their preclinical model, the researchers found efficacy both in vitro and in vivo by using CRISPR-Cas9 to mimic porphyria and combining the technology with light therapy.
Read More
Pegcetacoplan for PNH More Cost-Effective Than Anti-C5 Monoclonal Antibodies
April 18th 2024A cost-utility analysis conducted from the perspective of the Italian health system found that pegcetacoplan was more effective and less costly than 2 complement 5 (C5) inhibitors for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH).
Read More