The impact of the affordable care act on breast cancer care in the USA: A multi‐institutional analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 948-952
Author(s):  
Jessica Maxwell ◽  
Oleg Shats ◽  
Joshua Aldridge ◽  
Elizabeth Lyden ◽  
Amy Krie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Institutional Analysis ◽  
Breast Cancer Care ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Affordable Care Act ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Assessing the Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on the Attitudes and Practice of Italian Oncologists Toward Breast Cancer Care and Related Research Activities

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. e1304-e1314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Poggio ◽  
Marco Tagliamento ◽  
Massimo Di Maio ◽  
Valentino Martelli ◽  
Andrea De Maria ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Weekly Paclitaxel ◽  
Breast Cancer Care ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Monitoring Therapy ◽  
Medical Oncologists ◽  
Metastatic Setting ◽  
The Impact

PURPOSE: To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the attitudes and practice of Italian oncologists toward breast cancer care and related research activities. METHODS: A 29-question anonymous online survey was sent by e-mail to members of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology and the Italian Breast Cancer Study Group on April 3, 2020. Only medical oncologists (both those in training and specialists) were invited to complete the questionnaire. RESULTS: Out of 165 responding oncologists, 121 (73.3.%) worked in breast units. In the (neo)adjuvant setting, compared with before the emergency, fewer oncologists adopted weekly paclitaxel (68.5% v 93.9%) and a dose-dense schedule for anthracycline-based chemotherapy (43% v 58.8%) during the COVID-19 outbreak. In the metastatic setting, compared with before the emergency, fewer oncologists adopted first-line weekly paclitaxel for HER2-positive disease (41.8% v 53.9%) or CDK4/6 inhibitors for luminal tumors with less-aggressive characteristics (55.8% v 80.0%) during the COVID-19 outbreak. A significant change was also observed in delaying the timing for monitoring therapy with CDK4/6 inhibitors, assessing treatment response with imaging tests, and flushing central venous devices. Clinical research and scientific activities were reduced in 80.3% and 80.1% of respondents previously implicated in these activities, respectively. CONCLUSION: Medical oncologists face many challenges in providing cancer care during the COVID-19 outbreak. Although most of the changes in their attitudes and practice were reasonable responses to the current health care emergency without expected major negative impact on patient outcomes, some potentially alarming signals of undertreatment were observed.

The Impact of Patient Shifts between Hospitals on Breast Cancer Care: A population based study in The Netherlands

2018 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. S49
Author(s):  
E. Heeg ◽  
K. Schreuder ◽  
P.E.R. Spronk ◽  
J.C. Oosterwijk ◽  
S. Siesling ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Breast Cancer Care ◽  
Population Based Study ◽  
The Impact

Breast Cancer Stage at Presentation in Ohio: The Effect of Medicaid Expansion and the Affordable Care Act

2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-199
Author(s):  
Dan Kirkpatrick ◽  
Margaret Dunn ◽  
Rebecca Tuttle
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Advanced Disease ◽  
Disease Stage ◽  
Cancer Stage ◽  
Medicaid Expansion ◽  
Cancer Data ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Affordable Care Act ◽  
The Impact

Patients presenting with localized breast cancer have a five-year survival of 99 per cent, whereas survival falls to 27 per cent in advanced disease. This obviates the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. Our study evaluates the impact of Ohio's Medicaid expansion and the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the stage at which Ohioans were diagnosed with breast cancer. Data were collected for 3056 patients presenting with breast cancer between 2006 and 2016 in the Dayton area. Patients were divided into groups based on cancer stage. The percentage of patients presenting with advanced disease (stage 3 or 4) was compared both before and after ACA implementation and Ohio Medicaid expansion. These results were also compared with statewide data maintained by the Ohio Department of Health. Compared with pre-ACA, the number of uninsured patients post-ACA was noted to fall 83 per cent, the number of patients presenting with Medicaid increased by five times, and the proportion of patients younger than 65 years presenting with breast cancer increased by approximately 7 per cent. These changes notwithstanding, no difference was identified in the percentage of patients presenting with advanced breast cancer before and after ACA implementation or Ohio Medicaid expansion ( P = 0.56). Statewide data similarly demonstrated no change ( P = 0.88). Improved insurance access had a smaller-than-anticipated impact on the stage at which Ohioans presented with breast cancer. As significant morbidity and mortality can be avoided by earlier presentation, additional research is appropriate to identify factors affecting patients’ decision to seek breast cancer screening and care.

Using a disease pathway management approach to improve the quality of breast cancer care in Ontario.

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 109-109
Author(s):  
Andrea Eisen ◽  
Jasmin Soobrian ◽  
Ashley Tyrrell ◽  
Clement Li ◽  
Derek Muradali ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Quality Indicators ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Breast Cancer Care ◽  
Patient Journey ◽  
The Impact

109 Background: Disease Pathway Management (DPM) is used by Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) to set priorities for cancer control, plan cancer services, and improve the quality of care in Ontario by promoting standardization. The DPM approach applies a framework to examine the performance of the entire system from prevention to end of life care, and to identify any gaps within the system. In 2014, DPM began its breast cancer pathway initiative by mapping the patient journey, depicting evidence-based best practice along the breast cancer care continuum, identifying where further guidance is needed for clinical decision making, and identifying gaps in quality of care and performance measurement indicators. Objective: To evaluate the impact of DPM on quality assessment of breast cancer care in Ontario. Methods: DPM convened a multidisciplinary breast cancer working group (WG) of 40 experts from across Ontario. The WG held 12 meetings and used guidelines developed by CCO’s Program in Evidence Based Care (or other sources as needed) to generate pathways for the prevention, screening and diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care for breast cancer. The pathways were used as a framework to review the existing inventory of provincial breast cancer quality indicators, and to identify areas where evidence based guidance is needed. The pathways were subjected to an extensive review process before publication. Results: The expert WG identified 28 priority areas, including opportunities to develop guidance in areas where it is lacking (e.g. role of perioperative breast MRI; indications for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy) and system barriers that may hinder optimal care (e.g. biomarker assessment). The WG also used the pathways as a framework for evaluating performance measurement indicators by mapping 48 existing quality indicators for breast cancer to the pathway. Conclusions: The CCO DPM Breast Cancer pathways facilitated a province-wide, multidisciplinary process to promote quality standards, to identify gaps and overlaps in performance and quality measurement, and to recommend additional indicators more relevant to the quality of breast cancer care in Ontario.

scholarly journals Research-Tested Mobile Apps for Breast Cancer Care: Systematic Review (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Jongerius ◽  
Selena Russo ◽  
Ketti Mazzocco ◽  
Gabriella Pravettoni
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Early Detection ◽  
Cancer Prevention ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Care Management ◽  
Breast Cancer Prevention ◽  
Breast Cancer Care ◽  
Prevention And Early Detection ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mhealth Apps

BACKGROUND The use of mobile health (mHealth) apps in clinical settings is increasing widely. mHealth has been used to promote prevention, improve early detection, manage care, and support survivors and chronic patients. However, data on the efficacy and utility of mHealth apps are limited. OBJECTIVE The main objective of this review was to provide an overview of the available research-tested interventions using mHealth apps and their impact on breast cancer care. METHODS A systematic search of Medline, PsycINFO, Embase, and Scopus was performed to identify relevant studies. From the selected studies, the following information was extracted: authors, publication date, study objectives, study population, study design, interventions’ features, outcome measures, and results. RESULTS We identified 29 empirical studies that described a health care intervention using an mHealth app in breast cancer care. Of these, 7 studies were about the use of an mHealth application in an intervention for breast cancer prevention and early detection, 12 targeted care management, and 10 focused on breast cancer survivors. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate consistent and promising findings of interventions using mHealth apps that target care management in breast cancer. Among the categories of mHealth apps focusing on survivorship, mHealth-based interventions showed a positive effect by promoting weight loss, improving the quality of life, and decreasing stress. There is conflicting and less conclusive data on the effect of mHealth apps on psychological dimensions. We advocate further investigation to confirm and strengthen these findings. No consistent evidence for the impact of interventions using mHealth apps in breast cancer prevention and early detection was identified due to the limited number of studies identified by our search. Future research should continue to explore the impact of mHealth apps on breast cancer care to build on these initial recommendations.

scholarly journals The Feasibility and Performance of the Patient Navigation Programme in Improving Breast Cancer Care in Malaysia

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement 2) ◽  
pp. 95s-95s
Author(s):  
M. Jaganathan ◽  
N.H. Zainal ◽  
N. Rajaram ◽  
T. Soo Hwang ◽  
M.Y. Abdul Wahab
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Patient Navigation ◽  
Poor Adherence ◽  
Adherence To Treatment ◽  
Breast Cancer Care ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Treatment Delays ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Malaysia and it is anticipated that incidence will increase by 49% from 2012 to 2025. Unfortunately, survival remains poor because of late presentation and poor adherence to evidence-based medicine. Barriers to early presentation include inadequate knowledge about the disease, financial issues, negative influence of relatives and perceived poor quality of care and services in state-run hospitals. Poor adherence to treatment is also a common struggle, and is further exacerbated by the use of traditional, alternative healing methods. While patient navigation (PN) programs have been shown to improve breast cancer outcomes in the US, its implementation and performance in low and middle income countries is not well studied. Aim: We sought to determine the impact of a PN program in reducing treatment delays and improving adherence to treatment and patient satisfaction, as well as to evaluate the barriers faced by women seeking breast cancer care in Malaysia. Methods: We established a nurse-led patient navigation center at a secondary government hospital in Klang. This clinical team involved the surgery, pathology, radiology and nursing departments and provided patient-centered care, including patient tracking and call reminder systems, family counseling, health education and decision aids. The community team involved a Patient Navigator Program Coordinator and a Community Navigator. We compared treatment delays and adherence to treatment between navigated patients and patients registered in the year prior to the PN program. We used Student t-tests and Pearson χ2 or Fisher's Exact tests to compare timeliness between navigated patients and patients registered in the year prior. Results: Of the 136 Malaysian women enrolled in the PNP in 2015, 48.9% were diagnosed with advanced disease (stage 3 or 4). Women with advance disease had a lower median monthly household income compared with women with early disease (USD $350 vs $540, P = 0.023). Women with advance disease were also less likely to have personal transportation to the hospital (36.4% vs 56.5%, P = 0.048). Compared with the year before PN, more navigated patients underwent mammography within 7 days of their first visit (96.4% vs 74.4%, P < 0.001) and received their diagnosis within 14 days of their first visit (80.0% vs 58.5%, P < 0.001). The proportion of women who met timeliness to treatment initiation was similar for navigated patients and patients in the year prior. The proportion of defaulters were marginally lesser among navigated patients compared with the year prior (4.4% vs 11.5%, P = 0.048). Conclusion: We found that integrating PN within a breast clinic of a middle income country is feasible, and in the long run, could improve outcomes for breast cancer patients. Long-term follow-up is needed to assess the impact of the PN program on improving treatment completion and survival.

Effects of COVID-19 on an academic breast oncology center in New York City.

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (29_suppl) ◽  
pp. 51-51
Author(s):  
Jake Prigoff ◽  
Grace Hillyer ◽  
Fletcher Bell ◽  
Melissa Kate Accordino
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Targeted Therapy ◽  
Endocrine Therapy ◽  
Cancer Care ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Oncologic Outcomes ◽  
Patient Access ◽  
Breast Cancer Care ◽  
Oncology Patients ◽  
The Impact

51 Background: The influx of patients to the healthcare system due to COVID-19 impacted healthcare practices including the care of breast cancer patients. Our aim is to describe the impact this pandemic had on breast cancer care delivery at an academic center in NYC to inform policy and procedure for future crises that limit patient access to on-site facilities. Methods: A survey was sent to physicians involved in the care of patients with breast cancer at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in May 2020. Participants were asked about practice structure and changes to breast cancer care. The primary outcome was the degree that providers believed breast oncology patients’ clinical outcomes were significantly impacted by COVID-19. Secondary outcomes included changes in diagnostic and management approaches and advice for future providers faced with a similar pandemic. Results: The response rate was 65.4% (17/26). This included physicians from medical oncology (n = 7), radiology (n = 4), breast surgery (n = 3), radiation oncology (n = 2), and plastic surgery (n = 1). Seventy-six percent of physicians somewhat agreed, agreed, or strongly agreed that oncologic outcomes may be significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly half (47%) of respondents reported delays in the workup of patients due to COVID-19 with 50.0% for mammograms, 47.5% for bone scans, 46.0% for ultrasounds, 43.8% for PET scans, and 43.3% for biopsies. Eighty-two percent reported delays in overall oncologic management. Delays to systemic therapy were: intravenous/targeted therapy (37.9%), intramuscular/subcutaneous endocrine therapy (28.3%), oral chemotherapy/targeted therapy (22.9%), and oral endocrine therapy (12.8%). Delays to local therapy were: surgery (64.4%) and radiation therapy (44.6%). Almost two-thirds (64.7%) reported it necessary to use alternative oncologic management strategies. The most common piece of advice our providers offered was to increase testing capacity to all patients, especially when coming to a healthcare facility. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruption to breast cancer practices. Breast oncology physicians reported delays in management in over 80% of patients, and the need to use alternative management strategies in over 60% of patients. Effects of these disruptions on oncologic outcomes are unknown, but over 75% of our physicians believe this will significantly impact breast oncology patients’ outcomes. There's a need for policies and procedures to structure patient care should there be a future crisis that limits patient access to oncologic care.

scholarly journals Trends in Insurance Status Among Patients Diagnosed With Cancer Before and After Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. e92-e102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haley A. Moss ◽  
Laura J. Havrilesky ◽  
S. Yousuf Zafar ◽  
Gita Suneja ◽  
Junzo Chino
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Insurance Status ◽  
Medicaid Expansion ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Medicaid Eligibility ◽  
The Affordable Care Act ◽  
Insurance Rates ◽  
The Impact

Purpose: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to increase insurance coverage through key provisions such as expansion of Medicaid eligibility and enforcement of an individual mandate. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of the ACA on insurance rates among patients newly diagnosed with colon, lung, or breast cancer. Methods: Using the SEER database, patients younger than age 65 years diagnosed with colon, lung, or breast cancer between 2008 and 2014 were identified. Insurance rates were examined before versus after passage of the ACA (2011) and before (2011 to 2013) versus after (2014) Medicaid expansion in nine expansion states and five nonexpansion states. Difference-in-differences models were used to estimate the differential impact of ACA in expansion compared with nonexpansion states. Results: A total of 414,085 patients with known insurance status were diagnosed with colon, lung, or breast cancer between 2008 and 2014. For all cancer types, there was a significant increase in patients enrolled in Medicaid after 2011 in expansion states. Between 2011 to 2013 and 2014, in patients living in states with Medicaid expansion, the uninsured rates decreased by ≥ 50% among patients with a new diagnosis of lung and colon cancer (6.5% in 2011 to 2013 to 3.1% in 2014 and 6.8% in 2011 to 2013 to 3.4% in 2014, respectively; P < .001); the uninsured rate decreased to a lesser degree for patients with breast cancer (2.7% in 2011 to 2013 to 1.6% in 2014; P < .001). This decrease in the rate of uninsured patients was absent in patients living in nonexpansion states. Conclusion: The ACA resulted in expanded insurance coverage for patients diagnosed with colon, lung, and breast cancer. However, the impact was only observed in states that increased their Medicaid eligibility.

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