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Evolution in
2 OF A SERIES PART
Oncology Practice Management
(
New Jersey Hematology and Oncology Center Partners with OncoMed Bayonne, NJ—As demand for their services grew and it became increasingly clear that their practice was becoming a regional center for patients battling cancer, the medical staff at Colanta Hematology & Oncology Center made the decision to build and open an outpatient infusion center that could adequately and comfortably serve their patients. The result was a state-of-the-art infusion center with 20 recliners in a patientfocused environment that is open to serve patients 7 days a week. The medical staff of 3 physicians and 4 nurses, led by practice administrator Romel Colanta, MD, now delivers a broad array of outpatient oncology services, including chemotherapy, albumin, antiemetic, and iron therapy infusions. Additionally, the infusion center staff provides supportive cancer care services, including therapeutic phlebotomy, antibiotic infusion, and electrolyte replacement. They also provide multidisciplinary infusion services for patients referred to the center by gastroenterologists, neurologists, and infectious disease specialists. With the high volume of oncology drugs required to treat their patient panel, the medical staff at Colanta had to make the decision as to how they would supply their patients with oncology medications. If they followed the traditional practice of hematology and oncology providers, they would “buy and bill” the
medications, meaning they would have the responsibility of sourcing and purchasing the medications, storing them, preparing and sometimes compounding them for patients, managing the inventory on an ongoing basis, and dealing with a bevy of insurance prior authorization and reimbursement procedures and requirements in order to get paid.
est clinical standards, deliver them just in time for treatment day (thereby eliminating waste), handle all the hassles of insurance prior authorization and reimbursement, and free the center from the challenges of safely storing and dispensing the drugs and the huge, capitalintensive “carry costs” that maintaining such an inventory requires.
“The partnership with OncoMed has enabled us to make better use of our capital.” —Romel Colanta, MD Practice Administrator Colanta Hematology & Oncology Center
Although buy and bill traditionally had its benefits, including a substantial margin paid by Medicare and other commercial payers, changes that resulted from the Medicare Modernization Act lowered a margin that sometimes paid physicians 40% over the cost of the drug to just 6%. The Colanta team decided there was a better way. They knew they could outsource the pharmacy function to a pharmacy that was highly specialized in oncology medications. This pharmacy would prepare the drugs under the high-
The outpatient infusion center at Colanta Hematology & Oncology Center comfortably serves patients.
Dr Colanta and his colleagues researched their options and chose OncoMed—The Oncology Pharmacy. OncoMed is an oncology pharmacy, meaning that its sole business is oncology medications. Its specially trained and certified oncology pharmacists work in a technologically advanced pharmacy built exclusively for oncology pharmaceutical prescription processing and dispensing, including a USP <797>-compliant class 5 clean room. To protect the supply chain and ensure a complete and full drug pedigree, all inventories are purchased directly from pharmaceutical manufacturers. The company’s “just-intime treatment-day” service means that oncologists and hematologists in any state in the nation are guaranteed delivery of medications and all therapyspecific administration supplies within 24 hours of placing the order. Given the Colanta Hematology & Oncology Center’s close proximity to one of OncoMed’s regional oncology pharmacy sites, they were eligible to get same day and even emergency stat dose delivery when needed. But what also set OncoMed apart from specialty pharmacies that concentrate on more than one class of pharmaceuticals is the OncoMed care management support team’s ability to work with insurers to get the authorizations that the Colanta Hematology & Oncology Center’s patients need. OncoMed’s team includes
patient care navigators and patient reimbursement specialists who have extensive experience working with insurers, oncology drug manufacturers, and medical foundations. These specialists always know where to go to search for needed funding for patients who are banking on that expertise for their recovery. OncoMed has become a pivotal partner to the Colanta Hematology & Oncology Center by owning the pharmaceutical worry and letting the physicians focus solely on guiding their patients to remission. We sat down with Dr Colanta and asked him about the new center and its partnership with OncoMed. Why did your infusion center choose to partner with OncoMed? The buy-and-bill model that oncologists have always worked under is no longer viable. Physicians can’t make an office run on a 6% margin. Under buy and bill, the average sales price (ASP) + 6% methodology can very quickly go to ASP + 4%, +2%, or -2% if we run into any obstacles in getting reimbursed. And with expensive drugs like chemotherapy, we cannot take that risk. Plus, OncoMed helps patients get funding for medication even after the patient’s insurer has denied coverage. In addition to this new center, you now have 2 additional sites in New Jersey. How has the partnership with OncoMed enabled you to successfully launch and grow the center? When we opened, 90% of what we infused in the clinic was oncolytics. As we have grown, we infuse a far broader array of medications. The backbone of our practice is still chemotherapy, but we have increased our nononcolytic infusions. For patients referred by gastrointestinal practitioners, we infuse infliximab, and for those referred by infectious disease physicians, we provide antibiotic infusions. Some of those drugs are still viable [under buy and bill], but not all. We have been able to devote money that has traditionally gone to purchasing medication and instead expand our services. The partnership with OncoMed has enabled us to make better use of our capital. Continued on next page