07/07/2022
"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new model aimed at improving cancer care for Medicare patients and lowering health care costs. CMS’ Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Innovation Center) designed the Enhancing Oncology Model (EOM) to test how to improve health care providers’ ability to deliver care centered around patients, consider patients’ unique needs, and deliver cancer care in a way that will generate the best possible patient outcomes. The model will focus on supporting and learning from cancer patients, caregivers, and cancer survivors, while addressing inequities and providing patients with treatments that address their unique needs.
The central goal of EOM is to better support patients and improve their care experience, advancing a key goal of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Oncology practices who participate in EOM can expect to provide patient-focused Enhanced Services, such as 24/7 access to a clinician, patient navigation services, a detailed care plan, and screenings for health-related social needs. Patients will also have an opportunity to share feedback on their overall cancer care experience and health outcomes. EOM aims to increase and improve communications among patients, oncologists, and care teams in-between appointments and enable patients to more easily reach their health care providers with questions.
In addition to requiring participants to screen for health-related social needs, EOM includes other design elements that help drive CMS’ commitment to advancing health equity, including:
-Offering an additional payment to participating oncology practices that provide Enhanced Services to patients who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid,
-Requiring participating providers to report patient demographic data (e.g., race, ethnicity, language, gender identity), and
-Requiring participating providers to develop plans showing how they will address health equity gaps in their patient population.
The current administration has reignited the Cancer Moonshot initiative and set new national goals: if we work together, we can cut the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years, and improve the experience of people and their families living with and surviving cancer — and, by doing this and more, end cancer as we know it today.
Earlier this month, HHS announced first-year funding awards of $215 million in a five-year, $1.1 billion investment into three national programs to prevent and control cancer. In May, HHS announced the availability of $5 million for community health centers, funded by HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration, to increase equitable access to life-saving cancer screenings." -According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
