On March 2, 2022, ACCC convened its members, sponsors, and industry partners in Washington, DC, for the first time since the dawn of COVID-19. Participants in ACCC’s 48^th Annual Meeting and Cancer Center Business Summit (AMCCBS) enjoyed three days of thoughtful discussion about the state of cancer care and new challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic. While our previous post describes the first days of the summit, here we get a glimpse of the activities and insights of the final day.

A New President

On March 4, 2022, ACCC announced that David R. Penberthy, MD, MBA, medical director of radiation oncology at Bon Secours Southside Medical Center in Petersburg, VA, would serve as ACCC’s 2022-2023 president. Dr. Penberthy took to the podium and announced his President’s Theme, which will frame his leadership activities during his one-year term. The theme, "Leveraging Technology to Improve Cancer Care Delivery and the Patient Experience,” will focus on 1) using data and digital health tools equitably to identify ways to reduce health disparities and 2) creating strategies to use technology to help mitigate workforce shortages and improve efficiency of care.

An Outgoing President

The outgoing 2021-2022 ACCC President, Krista Nelson, MSW, LCSW, is an oncology social worker at Providence Cancer Institute Franz Clinic. Nelson’s year-long theme, “Real-World Lessons from COVID-19: Driving Oncology Care Forward,” has inspired much of ACCC’s work during the past year, specifically addressing health equity and social justice, the need for high-impact psychosocial and supportive care services, and the importance of nurturing a professional culture that supports clinician well-being and resilience in cancer care. 

On March 4, Krista led a panel discussion to revisit her theme and address the continuing challenges in promoting patient and provider well-being in the oncology care setting. “Oncology professionals have shown remarkable resilience and innovation in the face of extraordinary challenges,” said Nelson. “Without a doubt, our community will use the lessons we’ve learned this past year to develop a blueprint for moving forward.” During the panel discussion, participants addressed the critical role oncology social workers and pharmacists play in providing essential supportive care services to patients throughout their cancer journey.

Al B. Benson III, MD—professor of medicine at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago—drew attention to some key results from ACCC’s 2019 Comprehensive Cancer Care Survey, which identified the areas in which many cancer centers continue to fall short. Although oncology programs and practices across the U.S. recognize the importance of the comprehensive cancer care that is recommended in many cancer guidelines and is essential for some accreditations, gaps exist in all practice types and geographic locations. “Survey results indicated that cancer centers need more staff, including in social work, financial counseling, nutrition, and palliative care,” he said.

Nelson’s Oncology Social Work Services Survey revealed similar areas of concern, highlighting a need for more social workers to lessen patient volumes per staff member. “We are asking patients to make complex medical decisions without taking into account what’s really important to them,” said panelist Courtney Bitz, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, director of clinical social work and spiritual care in the Department of Supportive Care Medicine at City of Hope in California. “Social workers will let us take patients’ preferences and put them into their care plans.” But to do so effectively, cancer programs and practices need to ensure that their staff can effectively meet with and help each patient. Additional staff, said Bitz, are necessary for clinics with higher patient volumes, and patients need to be risk-stratified to ensure they can access social workers when necessary.

“We highly recommend that we keep having these conversations about the value of our services, bringing clinicians, admins, and business experts to the table together where we can share our wisdom and expertise,” said Jennifer Bires, MSW, LCSW, OSW-C, executive director of Life with Cancer and Patient Experience at Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax, VA. “We can come together to develop shared values and outcomes. In order to do that, oncology social work has to be at the table.”

Powerful Resources

Panelists highlighted the value of two important tools developed as part of Nelson’s President’s Theme: Making the Business Case for Hiring Oncology Social Workers and Making the Business Case for Hiring an Oncology Pharmacist. These documents give cancer center staff the information necessary to make a case to their leadership that additional resources are necessary to adequately address patient needs. ACCC President-Elect, Olalekan Ajayi, PharmD, MBA, chief operating officer at Highlands Oncology Group in Fayetteville, AR, said pharmacy and social work play a major role in solving current issues in patient access to care.

“The primary role of the pharmacist used to be to simply dispense medications at the right dose, but that has changed,” said Dr. Ajayi, adding, “Technology has helped evolve the role of pharmacists.” Today, pharmacists provide supportive care to patients, which is centered around the medications they take. Dr. Ajayi said oncology pharmacists are vital members of the cancer care team because they help patients—especially those on oral medications—understand and adhere to their complex treatment regimens, adding that pharmacists also play a key role in obtaining financial assistance for high-cost medications.

But the biggest barrier to these essential supportive care services remains the same: reimbursement. The difficulty of identifying billing codes for supportive services is well-known. And oncology pharmacists still have no dedicated billing code. “These are issues we are wrestling with in all professions in oncology in order to provide high-quality care to patients,” said Dr. Ajayi. Nelson and her team are currently tackling the issue of obtaining reimbursement for social workers’ services, and they hope to have a manuscript about it soon. The publication, said Nelson, will provide clarity on the billing process for social work services in oncology. ACCC is also continuing its efforts to help cancer programs and practices across the U.S. make the case for reimbursing supportive care services so oncology professionals everywhere can work at the top of their license.

You can rewatch this session, among others, from the ACCC 48^th Annual Meeting and Cancer Center Business Summit online.