Oncology news you can use: Read on!

accconnect
A bi-monthly e-newsletter from the Association of Community Cancer Centers
December 2 | 2009

Who Will Care for Tomorrow’s Cancer Patients? ACCC Looks for Answers

The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) will examine innovative solutions to the oncology workforce shortage. Many ACCC programs are already creating innovative, real-world solutions to recruit, retain, and engage their staff. Does your institution have an innovative solution—big or small—aimed at staff recruitment or retention of cancer care staff, including oncology nurses, oncologists, radiation therapists, and medical physicists? If so, ACCC wants to know.

Read more.

Email apatton@accc-cancer.org with your success stories and innovative ideas.

Next Week: Bring Out the Best in Your Cancer Service Line

If you're looking ahead to 2010 and wondering how your cancer program will fare, look no further than ACCC's 5th Annual Hospital Summit on December 11, 2009. At just $169 this is the premiere meeting for cancer service line leadership. the location is the Tysons Corner Marriott in Vienna, Va., near Washington, D.C.

A GREAT VALUE with EXCEPTIONAL CONTENT.

Read more and REGISTER today.

Hear about:

  • Oncology State of the Union by The Advisory Board. This alone is worth the price of admission!
  • How to benchmark your program against the competition
  • The oncology professional workforce shortage
  • Healthcare reform: What Congress and the White House are doing that will affect community cancer centers
  • Pay for performance from an oncology perspective
  • Strategic planning and how to work with your physicians
  • How to make better use of cancer registry data.

2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative Conference Call on December 10

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Provider Communications Group will host a national provider conference call on the 2009 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). This toll-free call takes place from 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm, EST, on Thursday, December 10, 2009, and features time for questions and answers. Eligible professionals who meet the criteria for satisfactory submission of quality measures data for services furnished during the reporting period, January 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009, will earn an incentive payment of 2.0 percent of their total allowed charges for Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) covered professional services furnished during that same period.

Click here to register for the call. Registration closes at 1:30 pm EST on December 9, 2009.

Cancer Screenings Brochure Available From CMS

The "Cancer Screenings" brochure provides information about Medicare coverage of screening mammographies, screening pap tests, screening pelvic exams, and colorectal and prostate cancer screenings. It is now available in print format from CMS's Medicare Learning Network.

Click here to order. To place your order for the print version, select "MLN Product Ordering Page" in the "Related Links Inside CMS"

Landmark Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Legislation Nearly Complete

Long-awaited federal regulations implementing the landmark Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008 are nearly complete, and will go into effect by the end of this year. GINA prevents health insurers from denying coverage or adjusting premiums on the basis of genetic information, or requesting that an individual undergo a genetic test.

Read more.

Heard on ACCC's Listserve: Family Members in the Radiation Center

Cancer centers typically do not allow family members in to the control area to observe radiation treatments. One center considers making a change to that policy. Listserve members responded.

Click here to read more.

Oncologists Optimistic About Future of Oncology Clinical Trials While Citing Cost as Barrier

According to a national poll of oncologists and clinical research professionals, there is a high level of optimism about the potential of clinical trials for personalized medicine. While oncologists view cost as a barrier to treatment and research, they think policy initiatives are opportunities to effectively promote personalized medicine. Fifty eight percent reported being optimistic about the future of clinical trials in the United States, while 25 percent reported being either ambivalent or unsure. Only 17 percent consider themselves pessimistic. The survey was conducted by US Oncology.

Click here to read a summary from the recent NCI Cancer Bulletin.

Long-term Follow-up Provides New Insights on Adjuvant Therapy for Lung Cancer

Longer-term follow-up reports from two large, randomized clinical trials of chemotherapy delivered after surgery in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have yielded disparate results. Published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology the findings come 2 years after clinical guidelines strongly recommended the use of post-surgical, or adjuvant, chemotherapy in certain patients with NSCLC.

Click here to read a summary from the recent NCI Cancer Bulletin.