ASCO in Action Podcast

In the latest ASCO in Action podcast, ASCO CEO Dr. Clifford A. Hudis shares a quick preview of what's to come for the 2020 ASCO Advocacy Summit and Week of Action, which will take place September 14-18. Typically, ASCO volunteers from across the country gather in Washington, D.C. to advocate for policies that will improve access to high-quality, equitable care for people with cancer and ensure robust funding for cancer research through in-person meetings with their Members of Congress. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 ASCO Advocacy Summit will be a virtual event, but participants can expect the same important advocacy and education opportunities that the event provides every year. All ASCO members are encouraged to participate in the Congressional Week of Action by signing up with the ACT Network (through the Advocacy Center on ASCO.org). Subscribe to the ASCO in Action podcast through iTunes and Google Play. Transcript Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Dr. Clifford Hudis: Welcome to the ASCO in Action Podcast, brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network, a collection of 9 programs covering a range of educational and scientific content and offering enriching insight into the world of cancer care. You can find all of the shows, including this one, at "Podcast dot ASCO dot org" (podcast.asco.org) The ASCO in Action Podcast is ASCO's podcast series that explores the policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and the individuals we care for—people with cancer. I'm Dr. Clifford Hudis, CEO of ASCO and the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series. For this podcast, I wanted to share with listeners a preview of the 2020 ASCO Advocacy Summit and Week of Action taking place September 14-18. Typically, ASCO gathers volunteer advocates in Washington, D.C., in September for education sessions and in-person meetings with their Members of Congress. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic—like so many events scheduled to take place this year—the 2020 ASCO Advocacy Summit will be a virtual event, but that said, participants can expect the same advocacy and education opportunities that the event provides every year. ASCO volunteers will meet with Members of Congress and their staff by phone or video to advocate for policies that will improve access to high-quality, equitable care for people with cancer and ensure robust funding for cancer research. Advocacy Summit attendees will also attend webinars to receive education and training on lobbying Congress and the current political landscape. What is different this year is our online Week of Action, which will give all ASCO members an opportunity to advocate on critical issues of great importance to the cancer care delivery system in the United States. Participants in the Week of Action will amplify the Advocacy Summit's messages through email and social media messages to Members of Congress using ASCO's ACT Network. And, it's easy to get involved and make your voice heard. You just need to click on the link to the ACT Network in the Advocacy Center on ASCO.org and sign up to receive ASCO ACT Network emails. Then, you'll get all the information on the fastest and easiest ways to contact lawmakers delivered directly to your inbox. We hope you will participate as much as you can—the effort will take just minutes. Even one message a day by every ASCO member to your representatives in Congress will have a tremendous impact. During the virtual Advocacy Summit, which will be held in the middle of the Week of Action on September 16, ASCO volunteer advocates will have their virtual meetings with Members of Congress and their staff. The three issues or "legislative asks" that they will be discussing will be the same asks that ASCO members will contact their Members of Congress about during the Week of Action. One, we will ask Congress to support legislation—The CLINICAL TREATMENT Act, which will give all Medicaid beneficiaries coverage of routine costs when enrolled in clinical trials—coverage Medicare and private insurance plans already provide. The importance of improving health equity has become even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this legislation takes us one step closer to that goal. Two, ASCO volunteer advocates will request lawmakers to co-sponsor the Safe Step Act, which will help protect patients from harmful step therapy protocols, which ASCO believes is never appropriate in the treatment of cancer. And three, we'll address the impact COVID-19 has had on cancer practices and research. Specifically, advocates will ask Congress to endorse maintaining reimbursement flexibilities for telehealth, as many oncology practices have rapidly transitioned to telehealth to ensure patients continued receiving treatment during the pandemic. We'll also be asking Congress to provide emergency funding to the National Institutes of Health to mitigate disruptions caused to labs and clinical trials by COVID-19, and to restart research across the county. These are the same issues that participants in the Week of Action will be advocating for all week long in their outreach to Congress. The goals of the Advocacy Summit and Week of Action are to advance priority legislation, amplify the collective voice of the cancer care community on Capitol Hill, and to get ASCO members involved in advocacy initiatives. Members of Congress and their staff have grown accustomed to virtual constituent meetings, and personal stories continue to be the most effective form of advocacy, so the Advocacy Summit and Week of Action—even virtually—remain critical to ASCO's larger advocacy efforts. In addition to the meetings and messages between advocates and lawmakers, the ASCO Advocate of the Year and the Congressional Champion for Cancer Care will be named during the Advocacy Summit. In closing today, I encourage everyone listening today to follow the Advocacy Summit through social media by way of the hashtag ASCO Advocacy Summit (#ASCOAdvocacySummit) on Twitter AND to participate in the Week of Action through the ACT Network. A link to the ACT Network and all the information you'll need to participate in the Week of Action is available at ASCO dot org slash ASCO Action (www.asco.org/ascoaction). Until next time, thank you for listening to this ASCO in Action podcast and if you enjoyed what you heard today, don't forget to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and while you are there, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. The ASCO in Action Podcast is just one of ASCO's many podcasts; you can find all of the shows at "Podcast dot ASCO dot org" (podcast.asco.org).

In the latest ASCO in Action Podcast, ASCO CEO Dr. Clifford A. Hudis provides an update on a new initiative, the ASCO Survey on COVID-19 in Oncology Registry (ASCO Registry), which aims to help the cancer community learn more about the pattern of symptoms and severity of COVID-19 among patients with cancer, as well as how the virus is impacting the delivery of cancer care and patient outcomes. "We have an urgent need to learn more about how COVID-19 is directly and indirectly affecting the people with cancer who we serve. In times of crisis, it's especially important that we learn from every patient so that we can refine our approaches and continue to provide the highest quality care," said Dr. Hudis. Subscribe to the ASCO in Action podcast through iTunes and Google Play. Transcript Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy, should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Dr. Clifford Hudis: Welcome to the ASCO in Action Podcast, brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network, a collection of 9 programs covering a range of educational and scientific content and offering enriching insight into the world of cancer care. You can find all of the shows, including this one, at podcast.asco.org ("Podcast dot ASCO dot org") The ASCO in Action Podcast is ASCO's podcast series that explores the policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and the individuals we care for—people with cancer. I'm Dr. Clifford Hudis, CEO of ASCO and the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series. For this podcast, I wanted to provide a quick update about one of ASCO's newest initiatives, the ASCO Survey on COVID-19 in Oncology Registry, which we've launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's clear that the COVID-19 pandemic poses a threat to people all across the globe. Since the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus, we've learned that certain populations – including individuals with cancer – are more likely to be vulnerable to the worst outcomes from COVID-19. However, there's still so much that we do not understand. We have an urgent need to learn more about how COVID-19 is directly and indirectly affecting the people with cancer who we serve. In response, ASCO recently announced the new ASCO Survey on COVID-19 in Oncology Registry or ASCO Registry for short. This exciting new initiative was developed under the leadership and vision of ASCO's Chief Medical Office Dr. Richard Schilsky, with support from a dedicated team of professional staff who work for our Center for Research & Analytics (CENTRA). The ASCO Registry was established so that we can learn more about the pattern of symptoms and severity of COVID-19 among patients with cancer, as well as how the virus is impacting the delivery of cancer care and patient outcomes. We're not just looking at point-in-time data on patients with cancer. The ASCO Registry will capture longitudinal data on how the virus impacts patient care and outcomes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and into 2021. We hope that longer-term look will tell us if the virus resulted in specific complications for patients, delayed patients' ability to get a specific type of treatment, or if certain approaches resulted in better outcomes for patients. Once we have sufficient data in the Registry, we plan to release periodic reports to the cancer community and the broader public on key learnings. These reports might include details like the characteristics of patients with cancer most impacted by COVID-19, estimates of the severity of disease among patients with cancer, changes or delays to treatments, and the implementation of telehealth in a cancer care setting. We also hope to be able to report on the clinical outcomes among patients with cancer during the pandemic. And, we might even learn that certain unconventional approaches might allow us to deliver care more efficiently or safely without jeopardizing patient outcomes. The ASCO Registry is open to all U.S. oncology practices. That includes physician-owned, academic, hospital or health system-owned practices, and hospitals themselves. Participating practices will be asked to complete a baseline data capture form on each patient with cancer who has a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. Later, practices will be asked to provide follow-up information on each patient's status, treatment, and outcomes. Data will also be collected on practice-level changes, such as new screening procedures, implementation of telehealth in the practice, and changes to clinical trial enrollment procedures. The ASCO Registry will securely collect limited patient identifying data – such as zip code, date of birth, gender, race, ethnicity, type of cancer, and comorbidities. By collecting this type of data, it will be possible for us to conduct longitudinal analysis. Data from practices participating in the registry will be collected and securely stored on the CancerLinQ® platform. We're not alone in our work to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on the cancer care system and the patients we serve. Other registries, including the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) and the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Research Collaborative COVID-19 Registry for Hematologic Malignancy have already been launched, and other multi-site registries are in development. We are encouraging all oncology practices to participate in one or more registries based on their specific needs and to reflect the patients they serve. Each of these registries has a different focus and timeline, so participating in multiple registries will not compromise our efforts or prevent all organizations from working together. We are actively looking for opportunities to collaborate with our colleagues on these initiatives. The ASCO Registry is part of our ongoing efforts to provide the most current information and resources the virus to our members and the larger oncology community. We've developed a wide variety of COVID-19 resources to support clinicians, the cancer care delivery team, and patients with cancer. Some of those resources include patient care guidance for oncologists treating patients with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic; guidance for practices on how to adjust their policies in response to the virus; and updates on federal activities to respond to this crisis. We're also co-hosting a weekly webinar series with the Oncology Nursing Society on COVID-19. Each webinar examines a range of issues to help clinicians care for people with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can find all of these resources and more at asco.org. Patient-focused information is also available at cancer.net. We invite all of our listeners to learn more about the ASCO Registry on asco.org. In times of crisis, it's especially important that we learn from every patient so that we can refine our approaches and continue to provide the highest quality care. Until next time, thank you for listening to this ASCO in Action podcast and if you enjoyed what you heard today, don't forget to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and while you are there, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. The ASCO in Action Podcast is just one of ASCO's many podcasts; you can find all of the shows at podcast.asco.org.

In the latest ASCO in Action Podcast, ASCO CEO Dr. Clifford A. Hudis, discusses updates that will affect oncologists in the 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule, which outlines changes to Part B reimbursement policies and the Quality Payment Program. ASCO's goal will always be "to ensure that oncologists can provide the right treatment, at the right time," says Dr. Hudis, "and we aim to help CMS implement policies that advance that goal." Take the ASCO Podcast Survey and help ASCO improve its podcast program: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ascopodcasts Transcript Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Dr. Clifford Hudis: Welcome to the ASCO in Action Podcast, brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network, a collection of 9 programs covering a range of educational and scientific content and offering enriching insight into the world of cancer care. You can find all of the shows, including this one, at podcast.asco.org. The ASCO in Action Podcast is ASCO's podcast series that explores the policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and the individuals we care for—people with cancer. I'm Dr. Clifford Hudis, CEO of ASCO and the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series. For this podcast, I wanted to provide a quick update on an important announcement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which of course we refer to as CMS on this podcast. In early November, the agency released its final rule for the 2020 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule—commonly referred as the "physician fee schedule"—and other changes to Medicare Part B reimbursement policies, including proposed updates to the Quality Payment Program. Just to review, the physician fee schedule is a complete listing of fees that Medicare uses to pay doctors or other providers and suppliers. It is also a comprehensive listing of maximum fees that is updated each year and used to reimburse providers on a fee-for-service basis. At ASCO, we always review this rule closely and assess its likely impact our members and, most importantly, our patients. The top takeaway from the rule is that CMS estimates a zero percent overall impact for the hematology/oncology and radiation oncology specialties in 2020. Though it's important to note that the actual impact on individual physician practices will depend on the mix of services the practice provides, and practices in certain states may see a change due to the elimination of the 1.0 threshold previously applied to the geographic practice cost indices. CMS also finalized provisions to align Evaluation & Management (or E&M) coding with changes laid out by the CPT Editorial Panel for office/outpatient E&M visits. This is a welcomed update that comes after ASCO and other stakeholders expressed concerns that earlier CMS proposals to consolidate E&M codes would have diminished the resources available to care for Medicare beneficiaries with cancer. We appreciate the fact that CMS listened to our perspective and revised its plans to better serve people with cancer. The physician fee schedule rule also finalizes updates to the Quality Payment Program for 2020 and beyond. A key update to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (or MIPS)—one of the Quality Payment Program's two tracks—is that all four MIPS performance categories will remain at their 2019 weights in 2020, but the performance threshold, which is the minimum total MIPS score needed to avoid a negative payment adjustment will increase to 45 points in 2020 (up from 30 points in 2019). CMS also finalized its plan to establish "MIPS Value Pathways" (or MVPs) beginning in 2021. CMS has described MVPs as a way to reduce the burden of participating in MIPS and for CMS to collect more meaningful performance data. The MVP framework would connect activities and measures from the four MIPS performance categories that are relevant to a patient population, a medical specialty, or a specific medical condition such as cancer. For years, ASCO has encouraged the use of high-quality oncology clinical pathways to help ensure patient access to high-quality, high-value cancer care. We are hopeful that this provision in the CMS final rule is a move in the right direction. We have also appreciated CMS' recent efforts to reduce administrative burden for providers. MVPs, if implemented appropriately, may help improve the quality and accessibility of cancer care. We will continue to work closely with CMS as it implements this new provision. I hope this summary of the updates to the physician fee schedule for 2020 was helpful to our listeners. Our ultimate goal is always to ensure that oncologists can provide the right treatment, at the right time, and we aim to help CMS implement policies that advance that goal. To that end we will submit detailed comments on the final rule during the open comment period, to ensure CMS understands the needs of the oncology community, and the full impact this rule is likely to have. If you'd like more information on Medicare physician reimbursement in 2020, please visit the ASCO in Action website at asco.org/ascoaction. Until next time, thank you for listening to this ASCO in Action podcast and if you enjoyed what you heard today, don't forget to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and while you are there, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. The ASCO in Action Podcast is just one of ASCO's many podcasts; you can find all of the shows at podcast.asco.org. Survey Promotion: If you like what you hear from the ASCO podcast, please let us know. Take our listener survey and help shape the future of the ASCO Podcast Network. Visit podcast.asco.org click on the Survey link. Once again, that's podcast.asco.org. The survey will just take a few minutes to complete and will help us get to know you better. Thank you so much for listening.

ASCO CEO Dr. Clifford A. Hudis discusses findings from the ASCO 2019 National Cancer Opinion Survey, which found that only one in four Americans are taking concrete steps to prevent cancer, even though evidence exists that as many as half of all...

On September 25-26, ASCO held its 2019 Advocacy Summit, during which oncology care providers from across the United States came to Capitol Hill to urge Members of Congress to support policies that will improve access to high-quality, high-value care for people living with cancer. Listen to coverage in this new ASCO in Action podcast. Transcript Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Dr. Clifford Hudis: Welcome to this ASCO in Action podcast, brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network, a collection of nine programs covering a range of educational and scientific content, and offering enriching insight into the world of cancer care. You can find all of ASCO's podcasts, including this one, at podcast.asco.org. My name is Clifford Hudis, and I'm the CEO of ASCO, as well as the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series, which explores policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and the individuals we care for: people with cancer. Recently, ASCO held its 2019 Advocacy Summit. More than 130 oncology care providers from across the United States came here to Washington DC to meet with members of Congress and to urge support for policies that improve access to high-quality, high-value care for people living with cancer. This is one of the highest impact events that ASCO holds every year. There's nothing like seeing ASCO advocates hit the halls of Congress with such passion and dedication, with the collective goal of ensuring that lawmakers focus on policy changes that will improve the lives of people with cancer and the care they receive. ASCO president Dr. Howard, or "Skip", Burris kicked off the activities at the Advocacy Summit and spoke about why it's so important for us to be on Capitol Hill. Dr. Howard "Skip" Burris: ASCO's on Capitol Hill today so that our members actually get to meet with their representatives and congressmen and their staff so they understand how important cancer care is to this country, and to make sure that they understand the issues that are facing our patients that we care for who are experiencing cancer. The decisions that Congress makes, with regard to health care and cancer care in particular, is so important and powerful to cancer patients. Access to therapy, timely access to getting treatments initiated, making sure that there's appropriate coverage of new therapies, all those things are critical for us to implement the great scientific and clinical advances that we've made into the care and outcomes for our patients. Dr. Clifford Hudis: ASCO advocates asked lawmakers for their support for legislation that will make a big difference in the lives of individuals with cancer. One of those pieces of legislation is HR 913, the CLINICAL TREATMENT Act, which would guarantee coverage of the routine care costs associated with clinical trial participation for Medicaid enrollees with life-threatening conditions, including cancer. Medicaid is the only major payer, including Medicare, that is not required to cover these care costs today, and we hope to address this. Dr. Karen Winkfield, chair of ASCO's Diversity Inclusion Task Force, says that changing this policy is critical to improving the validity of clinical research data and to improving patient outcomes. Dr. Karen Winkfield joined other ASCO advocates in urging members of Congress to support this bill. Dr. Karen Winkfield: So the Clinical Treatment Act is really vitally important because it will allow all patients equal opportunity to access clinical trials that would be beneficial to not only them, but also other individuals who may come from the same backgrounds, including racial and ethnically diverse populations, but also those of lower socioeconomic status. We want our clinical trial to be representative of every single individual in this country. Dr. Clifford Hudis: The Advocacy Summit was packed with meetings with congressional lawmakers and their staff. Dr. Jason Westin, a member of ASCO's Government Relations Committee, participated in the summit and he spoke about why these direct meetings are so important. Dr. Jason Westin: I think advocacy is very important for cancer doctors and cancer professionals to be an advocate for our patients. I think that there are so many opportunities for us to help our patients in the clinic, in the research arena. But if we're not involved in advocacy, then others are advocating in other directions that may not benefit our patients in the way that we would like. Many doctors view that as somebody else's job, or they view that as something that's not important for them to be involved in. I think if we don't step up, if we're not sitting at the table, then we may be on the menu. Dr. Clifford Hudis: Many ASCO members are concerned with payer-imposed strategies that are designed to contain costs, but often unnecessarily, and sometimes dangerously, delay care for patients with cancer. Dr. Melissa Dillmon, chair of ASCO's Government Relations Committee, explained why these utilization management practices can be particularly harmful in cancer care, and also spoke about legislation that will help address these concerns. Dr. Melissa Dillmon: So, utilization management strategies, like step therapy and prior authorization, hurt our patients because they cause delays in care and cause patients to take drugs that are less effective. So, we are asking for support on two critical bills. One is Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care Act, which really looks at prior authorization and simplifying the process, making sure that it's a timely approval of medications that are critical to getting them on treatment and getting them healthy again. The other act that we're asking for support on is the Safe Step Act, which really looks at step therapy and making sure that if step therapy is in place in an insurance program, that it does not prevent patients, especially oncology patients, from getting the best drug at the right time. So, as oncologists we're really fortunate in that drugs are being developed in a rapid manner, and we have many new drugs to help us fight their cancers. And so, we don't have the ability to use the cheapest drug always, because the best drug is sometimes the newest drug. And it may not be the one that's first approved on that step therapy utilization management strategy. Dr. Clifford Hudis: One of the highlights of the Advocacy Summit is presenting ASCO's Congressional Champion of the Year award to lawmakers whose leadership on behalf of patients with cancer deserves special recognition. This year, we recognize Congressman Ben Luján from New Mexico and Congressman Gus Bilirakis from Florida for their work. Congressman Luján addressed the attendees at the reception. Rep. Ben Luján: Your work and the difference you make every day saves people's lives. And it's certainly why I'm hopeful that more of my colleagues that have not had the chance to learn from you take a moment to meet with you, to spend time with you, to understand the magnitude of a difference that you're delivering for the constituencies that we all represent. Dr. Clifford Hudis: We also recognized ASCO volunteers whose advocacy efforts made a significant impact in 2018. Dr. Alexandra Thomas, a participant in ASCO's Leadership Development Program, was named ASCO's Advocate of the Year. Dr. Alexandra Thomas: Receiving this honor only makes me embrace the exciting work ahead even more. And I hope that will include extending our network so even more voices can join in this chorus, so Dr. Burris's picture of the ASCO Advocacy Summit will get bigger each year. But perhaps even more importantly, the virtual picture will get bigger as more and more of us join in and advocate and tell our patients' stories and realize robust and continuous government support to improve the lives of our patients with cancer. Dr. Clifford Hudis: The ASCO Advocacy Summit is a unique opportunity to educate members of Congress and their staff about the current realities of the cancer care delivery system and how their decisions impact real people who have cancer. The support of lawmakers is critical to ensuring that our patients have access to high-quality, affordable cancer care. This is why we feel it is so important that our collective voice be heard on Capitol Hill. A big thank you to all of ASCO members who participated in the summit, as well as those who participated virtually, by sending messages to their members of Congress through social media or ASCO's ACT Network. I encourage all of our listeners to participate in ASCO's advocacy efforts. Visit asco.org/actnetwork to learn more about how you can get involved. To stay up to date on all of ASCO's advocacy work, visit asco.org/ascoaction. Until next time, thank you for listening to this ASCO in Action podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard today, don't forget to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. And while you're there, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Until next time, thank you for listening to this ASCO in Action podcast.