HEALTHCARE INTERVIEW
Preventive care Elements such as screenings and mammograms to get in front of disease progression is ‘mission critical’
Nathan Walcker CEO – Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute What were some of the biggest takeaways from 2020? We serve cancer patients in nearly 100 locations across the state of Florida. If we’re not open or have staffing problems, that has direct downstream implications on patient care. In 2020, we saw, across our network of cancer specialists, roughly the same number of patients on a year-over-year basis. Given cancer incidence rates and demographic growth in Florida, the fact the volumes are flat, and in many cases down for providers, shines a bright light on the importance of preventative care. Doing things such as screenings and annual mammograms to ensure we’re getting in front of the disease progression is mission critical. FCS adopted telehealth and made a sharp pivot to how we operate fundamentally, soup to nuts, across our business. Systematic, repeatable processes ensure that every person coming into our clinics is safe and feels comfortable doing so. We then took that shift and operationalized it at scale for all our patients to continue having a rewarding experience in 2021. How is Medicare’s oncology care model making a difference? The oncology care model is essentially a demonstration project, or pilot, from CMS. The Centers of Medicaid and Medicare Innovation (CMMI) ultimately is tasked with supporting what has been happening across healthcare for the past several years, marching toward value and quality, moving away from volume to a value-driven model. It boils down to demonstrating not just real return on dollars spent providing care, but also advancing quality for patients and efficiency for the system. At FCS we are fortunate to participate in the oncology care model and many other value-based arrangements. We perform well given that we’ve made the right and the smart investments infrastructure-wise to help support the patient. We have a care management team and a
fully dedicated support infrastructure squarely focused on our patients and their extended care teams. What are you watching out for in terms of legislation? Late last year, the Trump administration brought forth an approach to drug pricing called Most Favored Nation. Had that been enacted, community oncology practices across the country would have gone out of business overnight. Whether this carries forward into the Biden administration is something that we’re watching closely. We’re focused on making sure that our state legislators, senators and people on the Hill who are representing the great state of Florida know how big of an issue this is; and that they’re doing the right thing to make sure that patients continue to have a choice for convenient, high-quality care close to home. www.capitalanalyticsassociates.com
| 139
