Ronald Piana

Hard-working community doctors may lose valuable cash flow if they undercode for services. But that is just what many oncologists do, generally out of fear of penalties for overcoding.

Electronic health records can help oncology practices save money and work smarter. Then why has the adoption of e-technology been so frustratingly slow? A recent survey in the New England Journal of Medicine found that only 4% of physicians reported having a fully functional electronic health record (EHR) system; only 13% reported having a basic system (NEJM 359: 50-60, 2008).

When you remodel an old bank building, you may wind up with your office in a vault, as did two staff members at the Bendheim Integrative Medicine Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s outpatient facility for complementary services and therapies.

During this election year, approximately 1.4 million U.S. residents will be diagnosed with cancer. For U.S. presidential hopefuls Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, cancer has hit close to home. Sen. McCain, 72, has been treated several times for squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma. Sen. Obama lost his grandfather to prostate cancer and his mother to ovarian cancer.

Since the passage of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, the changes in chemotherapy reimbursement have altered the economic model of community oncology practices.

Bernard Fisher, MD received his medical degree in 1943 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. As a young doctor, he was torn between a life in the operating room and one in the research lab. His curiosity about the biology of the diseases that were being treated by surgery eventually led to his decision to combine those interests.

There are a plethora of websites that hawk miracle cancer cures, luring consumers in with seductive testimonials of instant good health. To the average person, these sites are dubious at best. But for some cancer patients, the promise of an easy panacea veers on dangerous.

As a boy growing up in the Jim Crow South, LaSalle Leffall, Jr., MD, lifted himself above that era’s stifling segregation by embracing his father’s rock-solid credo: With a good education and hard work, combined with honesty and integrity, there are no boundaries.

The US Food and Drug Administration is often depicted as an obstructionist bureaucracy that inhibits the development of life-saving cancer drugs. But according to an FDA insider, the real story on drug approval has remained untold.

A common conundrum that community oncologists face in their practices is whether to bill a first encounter with a new patient referred by another physician as a consultation or as a new patient visit. Making the distinction may seem like splitting hairs, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has very specific billing criteria on this issue.

CHICAGO-This year’s roiling political contest took center stage at ASCO 2008 in a special session that reviewed the healthcare insurance reform proposals of Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive presidential nominees.

There is a large musical instrument, a vibraphone, occupying a corner of Dr. Larry Norton’s office, but it doesn’t seem out of place. He is a serious musician, so serious in fact that in his youth he thought hard about a career in music.

For some oncology practices, it makes sense to contract with a managed care organization (MCO)-a contract simply enables you to treat enrollees of an MCO.

These are trying times at FDA. The agency has its hands full regulating pharmaceuticals produced in the United States: Now come the perils of globalization, which were dramatized by the recent heparin scandal. FDA contends that the adverse events and deaths associated with Baxter’s heparin products were caused by a contaminant deliberately introduced somewhere in China’s raw material supply. Chinese regulators quickly rebuffed FDA’s claim, asserting the problem was more likely caused by impurities introduced in the final US drug production process.

Kanti R. Rai, MD, was born in the sun-drenched city of Jodhpur, India, during the waning years of British colonial rule. It was a beloved uncle who inspired his medical career-a free-spirited doctor who once took 8-year-old Kanti with him on house calls, riding atop a camel.

The truth about cancer pain hurts: Many oncology patients still suffer needlessly from unrelieved pain. This quandary is underscored by two disconcerting facts: We have the tools to alleviate upwards of 90% of cancer pain, and the problem was identified decades ago.

Electronic medical records have been shown to reduce operating costs, increase efficiency, and improve quality of care. Why then has the adoption rate of e-technology been so sluggish?

In 2008, new CPT codes were published for smoking and tobacco use cessation. The codes can be found in the Preventive Medicine section under Evaluation and Management (E&M) services.

V. Craig Jordan, OBE, PhD, DSc, widely known as “The Father of Tamoxifen,” collects the artifacts of war: guns and swords and medals (see photographs).

Erythropoietin-stimulating agents were spared the ax when FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) decided by a vote of 13-to-1 that ESAs should remain available for use in cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced anemia.

Justifying the huge capital investment in proton beam therapy centers requires a strategic model, in other words, a high-volume disease, such as prostate cancer.

Dr. Harold Freeman is a soft-spoken man with strong-held opinions. He grew up in our nation’s capital at a time when restroom doors and drinking fountains radiated the ugly messages of segregation, while African-American churches and schools provided a strong cohesive community. As a youth, he rose above the racial barriers of the time, ultimately forging his anger at racial disparities into his life’s work.

Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, was born in Hungary to a mother who had wanted to be physician. “It was a time and place in which medicine was not a suitable profession for a woman, yet I think my mother’s subliminal messages worked on me,” he said in an interview with Oncology News International.

A recent national survey found a striking increase in adverse events among Medicare cancer patients directly related to CMS’ national coverage decision on the use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents.

According to recent reports, a growing number of non-cancer patients are outliving the cap on the Medicare hospice benefit, putting some hospice providers on the brink of bankruptcy.

As a young boy, Vincent DeVita dissected frogs on the front steps of his parents' house in Yonkers. In the eyes of his encouraging mother, he was already a budding physician fascinated by the internal complications of life.

Over the past few years, the number of new cancer drugs approved by FDA has been dwindling. Critics generally cite exorbitant costs, lack of accrual to trials, conflicts of interest, and government regulations as the primary reasons for the dearth of new molecular compounds.

Studies show that thousands of women may be receiving the wrong breast cancer treatment because of faulty laboratory reports. More disturbing, this trend was identified years ago. A 2006 study led by Genentech found 14% to 16% of HER2 tests were false positive and 18% to 23% were false negative.

America's clinical trial pipeline is drying up, with fewer safe and effective new cancer drugs reaching the market. Some experts contend that FDA's control of the drug approval process hinders the development of new products.

The controversial new Medicare policy restricting the use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs)—Medicare's single largest drug expense—continues to stir intense debate.