Our Department's Ravi B. Parikh, MD, MPP; Justin E. Bekelman, MD; Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD; and Amol S. Navathe, MD, PhD, report:
The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is Medicare’s first bundled payment program for patients with cancer. We examined baseline characteristics of OCM physician participants and markets with high OCM physician participation to inform generalizability and complement the ongoing practice-level evaluation of the OCM.
In the first description of oncologists participating in the OCM, we found differences in practice demographics, care intensity, and exposure to nontraditional payment models between OCM-participating and nonparticipating physicians. Such provider-level differences may not be captured in Medicare’s practice-level analysis.