Engaging Patients in Value-Based Cancer Care: A Missed Opportunity

OPINION

Health care payments, including patient premiums and co-payments, are based primarily on service volume and cost rather than value. Payment reforms are under way to close gaps in quality and efficiency with leadership from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). To date, these payment models have encouraged practitioners and health care organizations to provide more efficient and higher-quality care but have largely overlooked patients. However, patients with cancer face substantial cost sharing for treatments and would benefit from more opportunities to share in benefits of high-value practice.

Read more from Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, and their colleague Blase Polite, MD, MPP (University of Chicago Medicine) in their JAMA Oncology Viewpoint.