Tesh Khullar on Trends for Community Oncologists to Look Out for

Consolidation is going to be a trend that community oncologists should look out for, explained Tesh Khullar, senior vice president & advisor, Flatiron Health.

Transcript

What are some important trends for community oncologists to look out for in the coming year?

I think consolidation is going to be a big one. There’s no changes to 340B reimbursement for hospitals coming up in the near future. Maybe at best we’re going to see [average sales price] reimbursement, so maybe a 6% drop but unlike last year when you saw the potential of a 22.5% drop. That’s not happening this year. So, therefore, hospitals are going to continue to acquire practices and so practices have to find a way to consolidate amongst themselves. There’s lots of ways to do it. Obviously [professional services agreement] or the hospitals are one of them but if practices don’t get larger and consolidate all aspects of care within themselves, they’re going to be having a problem staying independent in my opinion.