Community Cancer Practices Tackle Behavioral Health Concerns
This week, Real World Health Care brings you an interview with Robert “Bo” Gamble, director of strategic practice initiatives, Community Oncology Alliance (COA). COA is the only organization dedicated solely to community oncology, where the majority of Americans with cancer are treated. We discussed the importance of allowing cancer patients to receive quality, affordable and accessible care in their own communities and how the COA is addressing the needs of community cancer care through Oncology Medical Homes and its Advanced Practice Provider Network.
Behavioral Health & the Oncology Care Model
Real World Health Care: What are some of the biggest challenges community oncology practices face in treating the behavioral health needs of their patients?
Robert Gamble, Director of Strategic Practice Initiatives, Community Oncology Alliance
Bo Gamble: For cancer patients, having care that’s close to home is especially important. One of the biggest challenges and a key focus of COA is to keep local cancer care teams in community practice settings and minimize their migration to larger academic and teaching hospitals. COA provides an important support structure for integrated community cancer care teams, including physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, and practice managers. With the right support, community cancer practices have more time to focus on patients’ emotional and behavioral needs in addition to their medical needs.
From a patient-centered perspective, it’s about getting them the right care in the right place and at the right time. That extends to care for behavioral health, which is a component of the Oncology Care Model (OCM). Highly-coordinated care is a cornerstone of OCM, and we have a support network that helps community oncology practices succeed and thrive in implementing the OCM while managing increasingly complex services — including behavioral health services — and health care delivery pressures.
Oncology Medical Home
RWHC: What role can the Oncology Medical Home (OMH) play in helping cancer patients get the behavioral health screenings and treatment they need?
BG: COA has pioneered policy on OMH, which is a patient-centered system focused on promoting, delivering, ensuring and measuring quality and value in cancer care. One of the support arms in this effort is the OMH implementation committee that identifies, reviews and recommends tools, technologies and templates to assist cancer care centers.
Patient engagement is an important domain within the OMH. Community cancer care teams must listen to patients and respond to all their needs, including medical, behavioral, spiritual and financial needs. The OMH concept also extends to detailed survivorship care planning, which is now starting to be addressed more directly in community cancer practices and involves a range of specialty care practitioners, including behavioral health professionals. Patients need to stay involved and connected with that survivorship care team.
Advanced Practice Providers Crucial in Community Settings
RWHC: What role do advanced practice providers such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants play in helping cancer patients get the behavioral health screenings and treatment they need?
BG: Advanced practice providers (APPs) serve as clinical quarterbacks and often handle the bulk of patient communications and coordination, especially through survivorship care as I referenced just a moment ago. The COA has an Advanced Practice Provider Network that consists of a private, peer-to-peer information sharing website and listserv; monthly conference calls to review practice issues and discuss solutions; and opportunities for in-person meetings. The goal of the Network is to keep oncology APPs up to date on the latest news and developments including patient support strategies, health reform initiatives, the newest drugs and therapies, and APP leadership roles.
Increasingly, APPs are called on to manage everything from care team coordination to screening patients for distress issues that range from behavioral health problems, to clinical navigation and support, to local employers for the cancer care needs of their employees.
COA conducted a patient survey a few years back and, in virtually every category, APPs outscored physicians. That’s because they’re often more hands-on and tend to have an extra level of sensitivity and empathy so patients are more willing to open up to them.
Cancer’s Financial Toll
RWHC: How can community cancer practices help patients address the problem of financial distress?
BG: One of the first steps is to determine where the stress is coming from: Did that financial distress exist before the cancer diagnosis? The CMMI Oncology Care Model specifies that patients receive guidance on the expected total cost of care. It can be difficult for community cancer physicians to accurately estimate the total cost of a patient’s cancer care journey due to the many variables that may happen in the care process. But what should be communicated is the patient’s out-of-pocket costs — not just for treatments, but also costs related to managing side effects, dealing with unexpected costs like emergency room visits, and costs associated with end-of-life care.
The cancer care support team assists in identifying these needs, investigating and then utilizing these resources to aid the patient and family with this burden.
This assistance and support is also demonstrated by being available to the patient 24 hours per day 7 days a week. This minimizes unnecessary emergency room visits and hospitalizations. The benefit to the patient includes reducing financial burden but oftentimes more effective and efficient cancer care.
From screening for distress and navigating resources to creating detailed survivorship plans, the community cancer care team can form real and lasting bonds with patients. Those bonds are sacred and cherished and they should be encouraged to grow.
A Message from Our Sponsor
As the founding sponsor of Real World Health Care, the HealthWell Foundation is committed to helping patients get the medical treatments they need, regardless of their ability to pay. We’ve seen first-hand how financial distress can impact the health and lives of individuals and families. Cancer patients with behavioral health conditions are particularly hard hit; according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), patients with some forms of cancer incur $8,000 more per year in health care costs than cancer patients without behavioral health conditions.
In keeping with our mission, we are pleased to announce the introduction of a new Cancer-Related Behavioral Health Fund, specifically for treatment-related behavioral health issues in cancer. The Fund provides financial assistance to individuals with a diagnosis of cancer to help with cost-shares (deductibles, coinsurances and copayments) for covered services rendered by behavioral health providers (psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical counselors, and licensed social workers).
We invite readers of Real World Health Care to learn more about this new Fund and how you can support it by visiting www.HealthWellFoundation.org.