Implementation of cancer clinical care pathways: a successful model of collaboration between payers and providers.
Despite rising medical costs within the US healthcare system, quality and outcomes are not improving. Without significant policy reform, the cost-quality imbalance will reach unsustainable proportions in the foreseeable future. The rising cost of healthcare in part results from an expanding aging population with an increasing number of life-threatening diseases. This is further compounded by a growing arsenal of high-cost therapies. In no medical specialty is this more apparent than in the area of oncology. Numerous attempts to reduce costs have been attempted, often with limited benefit and brief duration. Because physicians directly or indirectly control or influence the majority of medical care costs, physician behavioral changes must occur to bend the healthcare cost curve in a sustainable fashion. Experts within academia, health policy, and business agree that a significant paradigm change in stakeholder collaboration will be necessary to accomplish behavioral change. Such a collaboration has been pioneered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Physician Resource Management, a highly specialized oncology healthcare consulting firm with developmental and ongoing technical, analytic, and consultative support from Cardinal Health Specialty Solutions, a division of Cardinal Health. We describe a successful statewide collaboration between payers and providers to create a cancer clinical care pathways program. We show that aligned stakeholder incentives can drive high levels of provider participation and compliance in the pathways that lead to physician behavioral changes. In addition, claims-based data can be collected, analyzed, and used to create and maintain such a program.
Cardinal Health, P4 Healthcare, Dublin, OH, USA. bruce.feinberg@cardinalhealth.com
Bruce A
BA
Feinberg
James
J
Lang
James
J
Grzegorczyk
Donna
D
Stark
Thomas
T
Rybarczyk
Thomas
T
Leyden
Joseph
J
Cooper
Thomas
T
Ruane
Scott
S
Milligan
Phillip
P
Stella
Jeffrey A
JA
Scott
D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D019091:Critical Pathways / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000191:economics*; D008824:Michigan; D018803:Models, Economic; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000191:economics*