Regional Cancer Care Associates And Aetna Form Oncology Medical Home

HACKENSACK, N.J., Oct. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA) and Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced a collaboration to create an oncology medical home that is designed to improve the care experience for cancer patients.

In the oncology medical home model, teams of cancer specialists collectively provide a patient's health care when he or she has a cancer diagnosis. The model will give RCCA the responsibility to arrange appropriate care that is continuous and proactive and physicians will be incentivized for improved health, affordability and a better patient experience.

The oncology medical home arrangement will be available to patients at all RCCA locations in New Jersey and Maryland.

"RCCA is excited to partner with Aetna on this program. It aligns with our vision of providing patient centered care close to home," said Terrill Jordan, RCCA President & CEO. "This partnership will not only enable us to continue the delivery of high quality care through reduced side effects, but will also facilitate cost effective care based on the data Aetna will be sharing," said Michael Ruiz de Somocurcio, RCCA Vice President of Payer and Provider Collaboration.

The model is part of a strategic direction to transition from fee-for-service medicine to value-based payment. Value-based arrangements are emerging as a solution to address rising health care costs, clinical inefficiency, duplication of services, and access to care. In value-based models, doctors and hospitals are paid for helping to keep people healthy and for improving the health of those who have chronic conditions in an evidence-based, cost-effective way.

"We understand that cancer treatment can be the hardest experience that our members will ever have to go through," said Daniel Knecht, M.D., M.B.A., Aetna's Head of Strategy & Planning and Interim Head of Oncology Solutions. "This oncology medical home with RCCA will help provide our members with high-quality care and an optimal patient experience."

The operating principles of the RCCA and Aetna oncology medical home include:

• An orientation to the whole person. A personal physician from RCCA will be responsible for providing or arranging all of a patient's health care needs with other qualified professionals. This includes care for all stages of treatment: preventive services, acute care, chronic care, palliative care and end-of-life care.
• Evidence-based, personalized medical care. The RCCA team will focus on making treatment decisions based on current medical evidence for each unique disease presentation, patient-specific factors and patient choice using appropriate treatments to improve quality and outcomes.
• Coordinated and integrated care. Care will be facilitated, across all elements of the health system, to enable Aetna members to get the appropriate care when and where it is needed and wanted, in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.
• Quality and safety. Quality and safety will be a focus of care, including the use of evidence-based medicine, clinical decision support tools and accountability for continuous quality improvement.
• Enhanced access to care. Care will be available through systems such as open scheduling, expanded hours and new options for communication between Aetna members, their personal physicians and hospital staff.

The oncology medical home arrangement launched in September 2016.

About RCCA
Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA), one of the largest oncology physician networks in the United States, is transforming oncology care by ensuring that cancer patients have access to the highest-quality, most-comprehensive, cutting edge treatments in a compassionate and community-based setting. RCCA includes 100 cancer care specialists and is supported by 700 employees at 27 care delivery sites, providing care to more than 23,000 new patients annually and over 230,000 existing patients in New Jersey, Maryland and Washington DC. For more information visit: http://www.RCCA.com.

About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 46.3 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities, Medicaid health care management services, workers' compensation administrative services and health information technology products and services. Aetna's customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com and learn about how Aetna is helping to build a healthier world. @AetnaNews

Media Contact: Bryan Soltes973-714-7904
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SOURCE Regional Cancer Care Associates