
Guest Post by Dr. Patricia Ganz: What Cancer Patients and Their Families Can Do to Coordinate Post-Treatment Care
This post is part of our 20 Years Later blog series which examines progress in advancing the principles in the 1995 NCCS publication Imperatives for Quality Cancer Care: Access, Advocacy, Action, and Accountability (Imperatives), this month we will look at the ninth principle of Imperatives: “The responsibility for appropriate long-term medical care ...

WCOE: How Chemo is Given, PCORI Hosts Twitter Chat About Cancer Side Effects, “Good Cancer,” How Mammography is Both Helping and Hurting, and Lung Cancer Incidence Increases in Never-Smokers
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE) Each week, we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. How is chemotherapy given? In many different ways, as we explain: https://t.co/vqUOL5PBtc pic.twitter.com/tS2Xn8fiwe— National Cancer Institute (@theNCI) September 9, 2015 Sept 29 at 2pm ET: join our Twitter chat about ...

WCOE: Gynecologic Cancer Awareness Month, A Building Bloom, Double Mastectomies on the Rise for Men with Breast Cancer
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE) Each week, we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. It's Gynecologic #Cancer Awareness Month. Learn more about the different cancers here: https://t.co/1RQgV3LeYJ #GynCSM— NCI Cancer Stats (@NCICancerStats) September 3, 2015 A cancer building boom, fueled by economics and an ...

NCCS Responds to Draft ASCO Conceptual Framework to Assess the Value of Cancer Treatment Options
NCCS recently submitted comments to the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on its proposed value framework. In June, ASCO published a draft of the framework, "A Conceptual Framework to Assess the Value of Cancer Treatment Options," in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and solicited feedback from stakeholders. ASCO described ...

Guest Post Series: Dr. Michael Ybarra Offers Innovator Perspective on Oncology Care Model
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the Oncology Care Model, a new payment model for physician practices administering chemotherapy that aims to provide higher quality, more highly coordinated oncology care at a lower cost to Medicare. This week, we’re presenting several different perspectives on the Oncology ...

Guest Post: “Coughing and Spluttering” — NCCS Co-Founder Susie Leigh Writes About Improving Care for Long-Term Survivors
The sixth principle of the Imperatives states, “People with histories of cancer have the right to continued medical follow-up with basic standards of care that include the specific needs of long-term survivors.” NCCS has been on the forefront of incorporating care and survivorship care plans into cancer care. Providing her ...

Reflections on Cancer Survivors Day: Managing Survivorship for a Lifetime
On Sunday, June 7th, we are reminded by cancer centers to celebrate National Cancer Survivors Day®. Today, there are a sea of colors for different cancer ribbons and wristbands, e.g., the ubiquitous pink for breast cancer, amber for bladder cancer, grey for brain cancer, yellow for all cancers, and so ...

Revisiting the Fifth Principle of the Imperatives for Quality Cancer Care
This month, as part of the 20 Years Later blog series, we are revisiting the fifth principle of the Imperatives for Quality Cancer Care: Access, Advocacy, and Accountability. This principle states: “People with cancer should be provided a range of benefits by all health care plans that includes primary and ...

Dr. Atul Gawande’s Recent “Overkill” Article Examines Screening, Overtreatment, and Anxiety
In another excellent piece in the The New Yorker entitled “Overkill,” Dr. Atul Gawande writes about what he calls an “avalanche” of unnecessary care Americans are receiving. With his characteristic mix of hard data, policy analysis, and personal stories, he describes the harms of overtreatment, to both individuals and the ...

WCOE: Making Informed Healthcare Decisions, Something We Can All Agree On, and the Power of Advocacy
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE) Each week, we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. Few Consumers Are Using Quality, Price Information To Make Health Care Decisions https://t.co/jHm1W09icY— Amy Berman (@NotesOnNursing) April 21, 2015 Conversations w/ advocates @sfuldnasso "Payment reform should focus on quality, not quantity of ...