While commending the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for seeking new approaches to physician payment, ASCO expressed concerns over the model’s limited scope. “We are disappointed [CMS has] chosen to pursue only one model—and one that continues to rely on a broken fee-for-service system,” said ASCO Chief Medical Officer Richard L. Schilsky, MD, FACP, FASCO.

In comments submitted to CMS on a draft version of its model, ASCO supported testing the Oncology Care Model as well as other payment reform models to determine new approaches to payment for oncology care. Moreover, ASCO urged the Center to test models that include more fundamental reform, which moves away from the fee-for-service system.

“ASCO looks forward to working with both public and private payers to explore new payment strategies that better reflect modern oncology practice and support high-value, patient-centered care,” said Dr. Schilsky.

ASCO has developed a comprehensive proposal that, it believes, better matches payments to the work performed by cancer care providers. In May 2014, ASCO released its Consolidated Payments for Oncology: Payment Reform to Support Patient-Centered Care for Cancer, outlining a new approach to physician payment for cancer care services under Medicare, and shared it with CMS and private insurance companies. The Society is also working on piloting its proposal in different U.S. oncology settings. ■