Oncology News Central (ONC)Practices Wary of CMS’ Enhancing Oncology Model

The Enhancing Oncology Model (EOM) only provides two risk arrangements with varying levels of downside risk, which means that any practice that participates may lose revenue or be required to refund payments to CMS. Furthermore, unlike the Oncology Care Model (OCM), the EOM focuses on systemic chemotherapy for seven cancers (breast, chronic leukemia, small intestine/colorectal, lung, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and prostate), and each will have its own formula for predicting baseline costs. This uncertainty is exacerbated by proposed reductions in Monthly Enhanced Oncology Services (MEOS) payments, which would be reduced from $960 to $420. For practices, this means either receiving less money for value-based care staples like patient navigation and creating care management plans, or reducing their use of them.