Summary
Major news breaking.. CMS has decided to implement only a 1% cut annually for radiation oncology reimbursement. This may be the most important news item in the world of oncology for the past decade. Faced with untenable projected cut of 19%, CMS reversed course and reduced the reduction in payment.
Analysis
A large sigh of relief was heard across the land as numerous freestanding centers, including those with few patients on treatment, managed to dodge a substantial bullet. While this will no doubt allow marginal centers to continue to survive, the greater threat to oncology in this writer's opinion remains the increasing power of hospitals and their overall better reimbursement profile than freestanding centers, while providing similar treatment.
This shift in reimbursement to favor hospitals has gradually taken hold through primarily technical reimbursement favoritism such as with HDR and Linac payments. Recent legislation has continued to favor hospitals, who have considerable power over physicians already. It is this writer's opinion that most likely, many freestanding cancer centers will eventually have to merge with hospitals or face extinction as hospitals begin to eye the benefits of operating their own profitable center.
