Withdrawn - Post notification Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2021

Reducing out-of-pocket expenses and optimising cancer care through bundled packages (#336)

Angela Ives 1 , Lesley Millar 1 , Antonia Dalton 2 , Yvonne Zissiadis 1 , Christobel Saunders 1
  1. Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  2. GenesisCare, Sydney and Perth, WA, Australia

Background – There is a growing need to develop new, effective and affordable treatment plans for patients with cancer. This is important for patients receiving care through private health care, where both out-of-pocket expenses and care co-ordination has been shown to be issues of concern. The Continuous Improvement in Care – Cancer (CIC Cancer) is a multi-institutional program that seeks to bring value-based health care (VBHC) to public and private healthcare settings in WA, and nested within this study is a project trying to address these issues. Aims – This innovative pilot project aims to develop and test a new bundle of care/payment business model. The model is aimed at women diagnosed with non-metastatic breast cancer undergoing treatment with curative intent during the first year of primary cancer treatment. Methods - Clinicians, consumers, service providers, researchers, health economists, public health experts, health finance experts, and private health insurers are collaborating to define care pathways and care/treatment decision points; map the disease process; categorise and cost clinical/treatment procedures and processes; and develop appropriate bundles of care. Results - Clarification of treatment decision has been undertaken and basic bundles of care have been created, with a known out-of-pocket expense for implementation. Patients also receive guidance from a specialised care navigator. Clinical and patient-reported outcomes data will be captured via the CIC Cancer informatics system. Additionally, patient experience will be measured using the All. Can questionnaire. Conclusion - This bundle of care/payment model offers known out-of-pocket expenses for a care pathway for women who hold private health insurance and are treated in a private health care setting.  We will measure the impact of this model on various aspects of care, including transparency, the certainty of a known and fixed out-of-pocket cost, care navigation on clinical and patient reported outcomes, and patient experience.