Blog

by Jason Hammonds, president

2023 has been a landmark year for The US Oncology Network, marking new heights in our mission to provide premier care to patients in local communities across the nation. We’re proud to share more about what we’ve accomplished this year.

Expanding The Network’s footprint through both additions and renewals

In 2023, The US Oncology Network experienced a year of tremendous growth, adding six new practices and expanding into four new states and with this growth, our footprint has extended to over 600 sites of care across 30 states. We are committed to providing high-quality care close to home, and this growing footprint greatly enhances The Network’s ability to do so by providing practices with the resources to succeed and thrive, all while remaining independent. With more than 2,500 providers treating over 1.4 million patients annually, our belief that local cancer care is better care is being put into practice every day.

Not only is The Network adding new practices, but we are also pleased to share that we had six practices within The Network renew their agreements with us over the last 18 months, reaffirming that our commitment to provide each practice in The Network with tailored support and services that meet their needs is being accomplished.

Strategizing to meet the growing patient demand

Continued innovation in how we support practices in The Network is paramount for our organization. One of our areas of focus this year has been increasing access to the premier care provided in The Network. We know that demand for oncology care continues to rise, and we want to make sure that we are optimizing resources in order to meet this demand. As the demands on practices and staff evolve, so does our approach, such as effectively using advanced practice providers and leveraging telehealth technologies, and we’ve seen a shared dedication to this effort across practices in The Network. These efforts combined with our newly affiliated practices have resulted in an approximately 20% increase in patient visits across our practices from the prior year. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with each practice so that we can ensure patients – no matter their location – can receive high-quality cancer care.

Leading the conversation in oncology care

Thought leaders in The Network played a role in important conversations in oncology throughout the industry this year and were featured in nearly 250 publications, including OncLive, Journal of Clinical Pathways, American Journal of Managed Care, CURE, Targeted Oncology and Oncology Times, just to name a few. Topics ranged from increasing patient access, to the importance of physicians becoming advocates, to value-based care strategies.

And teams across our organization hosted a number of events for our community in The Network to come together to discuss industry trends and share best practices. This included The Network’s signature event, the Annual Conference, and other events like the National Policy Board Executive Committee Retreat, the Payer Transformation Summit, and more.

Delivering on our commitment to value-based care

The Network is proud that 12 practices and over 1,500 providers are participating in the Enhancing Oncology Model (EOM). These practices committed to implementing all required EOM participant redesign activities (PRAs) at the 90-day mark and have focused on the core essentials of the model including care & treatment plans, initial drug initiatives, enrolling patients & billing MEOS (monthly enhanced oncology service payments), appropriately capturing comorbidities, and developing risk management strategies for the program. Through close collaboration with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) EOM leadership, we’ve partnered on engaging EOM Townhalls and strategic leadership meetings, fostering a dynamic exchange of ideas and feedback that is driving innovative advancements in oncology treatment and patient care. 

Another important value-based care initiative this year was the collaboration between The Network’s Texas Oncology and Carrum Health as they came together to provide exceptional breast cancer care to patients. This new collaboration offers a bundled package for breast cancer care that includes two years of coverage for chemotherapy, radiation, and symptom management from Texas Oncology. Texas Oncology is one of Carrum’s rigorously vetted Centers of Excellence, comprising high-value providers who prioritize patient-centric, evidence-based care nationwide. Carrum offers its employer clients access to pre-negotiated bundled prices, providing members with peace of mind and dedicated care navigators to help them navigate their treatment journey while reducing worrying about costs and administrative burdens.

From EOM to Carrum Health and over 90 other commercial Value Based Care (VBC) agreements, practices in The US Oncology Network continue to serve as leaders in VBC arrangements.  These groundbreaking programs have galvanized our teams, unleashing a wave of innovation that is reshaping the future of community oncology care.  We continue to partner with practices on VBC adoption, total cost improvement, proactive care management, and health equity all driving improved quality care for patients.

Transforming oncology research through collaboration

This year marked The Network’s first full year of our joint venture with Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI), a partnership with the potential to transform oncology clinical research. Throughout this period, our primary focus has been on effectively navigating and maximizing the potential of this collaboration. SCRI is renowned for its expertise in clinical research and innovation, making it an ideal partner for The Network’s goal to provide more access to research and clinical trials in the community setting. Together, we are working to leverage our respective strengths and resources, aiming to enhance patient care and drive advancements in medical research. In 2023 year to date, we have participated in over 200 clinical trials across The Network and more than 800 patients have been enrolled in interventional, treatment studies. In this partnership, we are fostering a culture of collaboration, enabling us to explore new avenues and approaches in the pursuit of growing clinical trial access by expanding our trial menu and increasing patient enrollments. As we reflect on this milestone and look to next year, we are proud of the progress we have made and excited about the future possibilities that lie ahead.

Advancing precision medicine with biomarker testing

Over the past year, our precision medicine program pursued an important goal: increasing biomarker testing across practices in The Network to increase appropriate utilization of targeted therapies. This work aims to integrate cutting-edge precision medicine support and tools into practice workflows to ensure patients receive the most effective treatment possible. We have successfully implemented a genomic ordering module within iKnowMed^SM G2 to help provide our oncologists with National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) testing recommendations based on the patient’s diagnosis and stage. The program also established electronic interfaces with key labs to enable integration of genomic test results into iKnowMed in both PDFs and structured fields. Ultimately, the goal of the precision medicine team is to improve patient outcomes by providing our practices with the tools, support, and education needed to navigate the complexities of biomarker test selection and results interpretation. In the year ahead, the team will expand their work to include a precision medicine analytics platform to track key performance metrics such as testing rates by diagnosis and utilization of appropriate targeted therapies, and the implementation of a genetic testing screening tool within the iKnowMed workflow. 

Looking forward

As you can see, there’s a lot of exciting things going on in The Network – and this is only a snippet of all that we are accomplishing together. I’m tremendously excited to continue to work together with practices in The Network to advance the oncology landscape and deliver high-quality care to all patients.