The 2026 COA Payer Exchange and Innovation Summit began with a panel on AI and the ever-changing digital infrastructure in community oncology.

North Carolina experts discussed CLL, breast cancer, and myeloma treatments and how to expand access to complex cancer care beyond academic centers.

Biomarker testing, referrals, screening, treatment access, and clinical trial barriers were examined during this recent IVBM.

Community oncologists cited prior authorization as a care barrier, even as AI adoption doubled in 2026, according to the Oncology Care Index.

Panelists say drug price negotiation, Medicaid changes, prior authorization, and 340B reform strain community oncology.

Payers cover novel cancer drugs but not the staffing, training, and monitoring to deliver them, leaving practices to absorb costs.

Experts tackled CAR T access, trial equity, and overtreatment in breast cancer at an AJMC Institute for Value-Based Medicine event in San Francisco.

Oncologists say advances in testing and treatment are outpacing staffing, pay, and access.