Gabriel Brooks

The Oncology Care Model and Medicare Payments, Utilization, and Quality Key Points Question Did the Medicare Oncology Care Model (OCM) lead to reduced spending or improved quality of care during 6-month episodes of care for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries receiving chemotherapy?

What is known on this topic ○ Neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage is a critical upstream social driver of health, and there is growing evidence that greater social deprivation is associated with worse outcomes among patients with cancer. ○ Higher physician network vulnerability, a measure derived from patient-sharing networks that captures regional specialist scarcity, has been associated with lower access to high quality care among patients with cancer.

Health care consolidation has significantly affected cancer care delivery, with oncology practices undergoing substantial consolidation over the past two decades. This study investigates practice consolidation trends among medical oncologists (MOs), factors associated with consolidation, and changes in MO geographic distribution.