What is OPEN Doing for Its Members?
OPEN looks out for the interests of oncology pharmacists and their staffs and provides the education and resources they need.
Keeping key policy makers informed about oncology drugs and reimbursement
Top priority goes to assuring that the costs of providing oncology drugs are accounted for in the reimbursement process. Currently, hospitals are reimbursed only for the cost of drugs in the outpatient setting. No provision is made for the preparation, storage, inventory control, and waste management of these highly toxic drugs.
OPEN leadership and ACCC policy staff meet with CMS and MedPAC staff to assure they are fully informed of the issues.
Click here to read a summary of our advocacy efforts at both the hospital and practice settings.
Surveys and reports
In 2008 the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) and Covance Market Access Services, Inc., released a final report on the "Impact of Payer Coverage and Reimbursement Policies on Off-Label Use of Anticancer Therapies." The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) also helped develop the survey. Nearly half of the respondents report that their practice’s frequency of off-label use of anticancer therapies has decreased over the past five years. Coverage and reimbursement challenges were the overwhelming reason cited by oncology practices for their decreased use of anticancer therapies for off-label uses. Oncology practices that report an increase in off-label use attribute their increased utilization to the availability of more drugs that have been shown to be effective in uses that are not yet FDA-approved.
Click here to read more.
Web site tools and educational forums
There are a lot of challenges and few tools available to the oncology pharmacist members of OPEN. Focusing on this need, OPEN is in the process of developing an extraordinary web site as part of the ACCC's website with a variety of tools and information/educational mechanisms specifically for oncology pharmacists.
Among the tools under development:
- A simulated pharmacy comparison tool, incorporating both drugs and quality-of-life parameters
- A bulletin board for OPEN members
- A series of educational tools
- Spreadsheets for oncology pharmacists on the HOPPS.
Our plan is to rapidly increase the amount of information and educational material available to our oncology pharmacists… focusing on communications which will help them explain the rapidly changing environment to their hospital oncology colleagues.
Building the educational core of oncology pharmacy at ACCC
OPEN will present a one-day meeting for oncology pharmacists at the ACCC Oncology Economics Conference to be held in Minneapolis, Minn., September 22–25, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. OPEN members will receive notices soon.
