Best data management practices for value-based care success: A conversation with Barry Russo
Part One – Establishing a support services infrastructure
Barry Russo, CEO, The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, is a pioneer in optimizing community oncology practices for value-based care success. Since 2009, Barry and his practice have been involved in multiple value-based care arrangements, including the United Healthcare Shared Savings program; the Come Home program developed by Dr. Barbara McAneny as a pilot with CMS; the Aetna Come Home program and the Oncology Care Model (OCM), in addition to participating in a local Accountable Care Organization (ACO) with another practice in the Fort Worth, TX area.
Along the way, Barry has learned invaluable lessons about the challenges of finding ways to lower costs and improve care for the population of cancer patients his practice manages.
“We’re learning so much about the information needs, the data needs and the complexities of managing a patient population,” said Barry. “Many times, a lot of things happening with a patient outside of the cancer center have been historically disjointed. We have to get our hands around why that means less efficiency and more costs.”
VitalSource™ GPO talked to Barry about the best practices that have led The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders to success under various value-based care programs. We’re pleased to share his insights in this podcast recording.
In part one of our conversation, Barry talks about how value-based care has transformed the culture of his practice, evolving from being a physician-centric organization to a team approach that has generated continued success.
For this large, multi-site practice of approximately 230 employees with 20 physicians and 13 advanced practice providers (APPs), the transformation was several years in the making and was more of a journey than a destination, according to Barry.
Over the course of 12 years, Barry and his team built a support services infrastructure that includes three key elements – a pathways system, a decentralized triage structure, and the implementation of major case managers to help educate patients and navigate them through their treatment. This structure has helped Barry’s team identify patients at risk and determine who needs advanced intervention to avoid a trip to the ER or hospitalization.
May 2020
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