To Boost Cancer Care, CMS Plans New ‘Enhancing Oncology’ Payment Model

Modern Healthcare: CMS To Begin New Oncology Payment Model
A new payment model targeted at improving Medicare cancer care will begin in mid-2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday. Known as the Enhancing Oncology Model, the voluntary program builds off the Oncology Care Model, which will end Thursday after six years. Two risk arrangements will be available in the new model, but both will require participants to take on some downside risk. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation will launch the new model on July 1, 2023, for a five-year test period. (Goldman, 6/27)

In other health care and research news —

The Washington Post: Women Are Still Underrepresented In Clinical Trials 
For decades, researchers have tried to enroll more women in clinical trials so research into drugs and medical treatments reflects sex differences and detects possible risks of newly developed cures. But despite gains — and legal requirements — progress has stalled. That’s the conclusion of a study published in Contemporary Clinical Trials that looks at female participation in clinical trials in recent years. (Blakemore, 6/27)

Stat: Keeping Race Out Of Machine Learning Isn't Enough To Avoid Bias
As more machine learning tools reach patients, developers are starting to get smart about the potential for bias to seep in. But a growing body of research aims to emphasize that even carefully trained models — ones built to ignore race — can breed inequity in care. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and IBM Research recently showed that algorithms based on clinical notes — the free-form text providers jot down during patient visits — could predict the self-identified race of a patient, even when the data had been stripped of explicit mentions of race. It’s a clear sign of a big problem: Race is so deeply embedded in clinical information that straightforward approaches like race redaction won’t cut it when it comes to making sure algorithms aren’t biased. (Palmer, 6/28)

Stat: CRISPR Debuted 10 Years Ago, In A Paper Hardly Anyone Noticed
On June 28, 2012, a joint press release went out from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory announcing a new paper in Science from an international team of researchers based there. “Programmable DNA Scissors Found for Bacterial Immune System,” it declared, hinting that the discovery could lead to a new “editing tool for genomes.” That paper, “A Programmable Dual-RNA-Guided DNA Endonuclease in Adaptive Bacterial Immunity,” has now been cited by more than 15,000 publications and downloaded nearly 65,000 times. It laid out the inner workings of a system called CRISPR/Cas9, transformative work for which two of its authors, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, were awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry just eight years later. (Molteni, 6/28)

Modern Healthcare: 5 Things To Know About R1 RCM's Cloudmed Acquisition
R1 RCM's latest acquisition is expected to add about $240 million to the company's 2022 revenue, executives said Monday. The revenue-cycle management company completed its acquisition of Cloudmed, announced in January, last week. Cloudmed is a technology company that uses artificial intelligence and automation to analyze medical records, payment data and medical insurance models to help healthcare providers manage claims and payments. R1 has sought to differentiate itself from competitors by developing technology tools with robotic process automation, machine learning and natural language processing. (Kim Cohen, 6/27)

KHN: Listen: He Was Denied Care Because He Owed His Doctor Less Than $100 
Ariane and Samantha Buck of Arizona have had their lives upended by $50,000 in medical debt. They rely on family to provide Christmas gifts for their three children. But Ariane Buck was still surprised when his doctor refused to see him because he owed a balance of less than $100 to the practice. “That’s just not right,” Buck told KHN’s Noam N. Levey. “Everyone should at least be able to get to a doctor when they feel ill.” Levey discussed the Bucks’ predicament with Mary Louise Kelly on NPR’s “All Things Considered” on June 22. (6/28)