New Report: New Way to Pay for Cancer Treatments

While signs of victory in the war on cancer are emerging, data-sharing and outcomes-based contracting could lower costs, improve precision treatment, and aid drug development.

NEW YORK, NY –America is leading in cancer research and treatment development, but drug and care costs are soaring. Payers are demanding more efficiency, transparency, and accountability, while oncology patients are caught between cost pressures and vital care. A new paper from the Manhattan Institute proposes adopting a new payment system for cancer drugs that emphasizes outcomes for individual patients.

Author Paul Howard explains that cancer, unlike heart disease or diabetes, often requires highly individualized treatment. Yet the current system of payment bundling has pushed providers to prioritize cost-effectiveness over customized outcomes for patients who require precision care. Howard proposes the development of an outcome-based payment system that customizes cancer care while better matching product prices with value.

Personalized oncological care—and outcome-based payments systems—require a level of cancer data-sharing that has yet to materialize. Howard explains how we can develop the IT infrastructure necessary to harness the massive amounts of clinical data that already exist. Other policy recommendations include:

• Regulatory reform at the FDA to lower the costs of oncology drug development
• Allowing novel reimbursement and contract designs
• Creating an FDA safe harbor for off-label prescribing

Click here to read the full report.