Taking Care of Business

Although many small oncology practices have either merged with other practices or have become acquired by hospitals, there are still a number of solo and small independent oncology practices in the United States. The Clinical Affairs Department of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) created PracticeNET so that these practices can share and receive insights to enhance their business operations and quality of care. The goal is to assist these practices in providing high quality, high value cancer care.

Participating practices will submit data for quarterly trend analysis and will be able to request reports that address their individual practice needs. ASCO’s vision is for PracticeNET to become the largest oncology practice collaborative of its kind, allowing greater opportunities for sharing, assessment, reporting, and finding new trends and patterns.

Practices will receive quarterly reports measuring a practice against a national database of similar practices and an annual “state of the practice” assessment on key production and cost measurements. Participation is at the practice level with all physicians participating, and at least one physician in the practice needs to be an ASCO member. The first-year membership fee will be waived, and the cost is $600 per year per physician.

PracticeNET has the potential to provide helpful information to small oncology practices that typically do not employ staff to run metrics on their business operations. Further information is available here.