Representatives from the payer community also attended the conference, underscoring the importance of a mutually beneficial association between payers and practices. This is a welcome trend.
The year of consolidation
There is little doubt that 2011 will go down as the year of consolidation in community oncology. In many of the presentations, and especially during networking discussions, it seemed that every practice was talking to its crosstown competitors, its local hospitals, or national networks, or all of them, to explore opportunities for consolidation. Suddenly, standing still looks like a losing strategy. The impetus for hospitals to acquire primary and specialty practices is increasing markedly, fueled in large part by the 2010 Accountable Care Act regulations. Leonard A. Kalman, MD, of Advanced Medical Specialties, gave an expert distillation of the many ways in which a practice can affiliate with a range of entities, from local consolidation to regional, state, or national.
Regardless of whether practices go it alone or consolidate, they likely will have to focus on a patient-centered quality approach as the new standard of care. John D. Sprandio, MD, of Consultants in Medical Oncology and Hematology in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, is a leader in this approach, with his practice being the first oncology practice in the country to achieve the highest level of credentialing from the National Committee for Quality Assurance as a patient-centered medical home. Dr. Sprandio described his efforts to improve quality in his practice by focusing on the process of care, physician performance, nursing performance, and disease management. The oncology patient-centered medical home will be well positioned to interact with the primary care medical home and will eventually improve efficiency, prevent disease and treatment-related complications, reduce duplication of testing, and improve transition of care.
Ultimately, this is what we all want: to deliver the right care to the right patient at the right time in a compassionate environment. The 6th Annual Community Oncology Conference, which was presented by Community Oncology, provided many tools to help us achieve this goal. Those in attendance deemed it an overwhelming success. We look forward to seeing even more of our colleagues at next year’s meeting.