Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Releases Multi-Stakeholder Findings to Drive Value and Outcomes in Oncology

Alexandria, Va., May 1, 2017 — Increased collaboration, improved decision-making support tools and greater use of value-based contracting are among the recommendations to address the accelerating pace of oncology products coming to market each year, according to proceedings from the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Partnership Forum: Driving Value and Outcomes in Oncology.

The partnership forum, held last fall, focused on the need to improve value and outcomes in oncology for patients, providers, payers and delivery networks. The proceedings, published in this month’s Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy, can be accessed here or by visiting www.jmcp.org.

“Oncology is poised to be one of the largest growth areas in medicine as innovation dramatically changes the way we treat this complex disease,” said AMCP CEO Susan A. Cantrell, RPh, CAE. “At the same time, there has been a rapid and sustained growth in the cost of cancer care, challenging the health care system’s ability to afford the very cutting edge cancer care we need.” 

Recommendations to address this challenge include calls to: 

• Address regulatory and legislative barriers, including best price regulations and anti-kickback safe harbors, to support the effective use of value-based contracting;
• Develop guiding principles and define key elements and data sets to support value-based partnerships and payment models between biopharmaceutical companies and payers;
• Collaborate with key stakeholders to develop quality and outcome measures that are clinically meaningful and measurable;
• Improve decision support tools – such as pathways, value frameworks, prior authorization criteria and EHRs – by incorporating real world evidence, diagnostic and genomic data; and
• Improve data fragmentation and interoperability by developing standards that allow for better oncology data collection and sharing, and reducing the administrative burden on clinicians.

“The proceedings are just the beginning of the work AMCP is doing in this space,” Cantrell said. “We are committed to leading the conversation around defining value and improving outcomes in cancer care. We are developing a forum on value-based contacting for June and a second forum on oncology in the fall, with the goals of addressing challenges outlined in these proceedings.” 

The AMCP partnership forum, held last November, drew roughly 40 thought leaders from health plans, integrated delivery systems, PBMs, clinical practice, biopharmaceutical and laboratory companies. Also participating were representatives from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association. 

The event was supported by Abbvie, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Foundation Medicine, Ion Solutions, Janssen Oncology, Lilly & Co., the National Pharmaceutical Council, Novartis, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Sanofi, Takeda Oncology and Xcenda.