- Center on Health Equity and Access
- Clinical
- Health Care Cost
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- Insurance
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- Value-Based Care
Proton Radiation-Yea or Nay?
Controversy over the value of proton beam radiation continues to harass clinicians as the therapy emerges to be extremely useful in some, but not all, cancers. Additionally, payers sometimes refuse to cover treatment costs due to lack of evidence of efficacy.
Everyone seems to agree that proton beam therapy—a type of radiation that can attack cancerous tumors while generally sparing the surrounding tissue—is an exciting technology with a lot of potential. But some insurers and disease experts say that, until there’s better evidence that proton therapy is more effective at treating various cancers than traditional types of less expensive radiation, coverage shouldn’t be routine.
That approach doesn’t sit well with proponents, some of whom say that insurance coverage is critical for necessary research of the controversial therapy’s uses.
Meanwhile, the number of proton therapy centers—huge structures that can cost more than $200 million—continues to increase. Fourteen are in operation in the United States and a dozen more under development, according to Leonard Arzt, executive director of the National Association for Proton Therapy.
Read the complete report: http://bit.ly/1v5OrpS
Source: Kaiser Health News
Examining Low-Value Cancer Care Trends Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
April 25th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the April 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on the rates of low-value cancer care services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
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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.
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Trastuzumab Deruxtecan Receives FDA Approval for HER2-Positive Solid Tumors
April 5th 2024FDA granted accelerated approval to trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki for adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HER2-positive solid tumors who received prior systemic treatment and have no satisfactory alternative treatment options.
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