Rochelle G Prosser: Time matters in cancer treatment
Rochelle G Prosser, Founder, CEO at Orchid Healthcare Solutions, shared a post by Nicolas Ferreyros, Managing Director at Community Oncology Alliance on LinkedIn, adding the following:
“This is an excellent reminder of how delays in treatment lead to poor patient outcomes. If you had the pleasure of attending the panel talk presented at the ASTP24 Annual Conference, I outlined how every hour of delayed treatment in Stage 3+ and Stage 4+ cancer and metastatic disease equates to 10 days reduced life expectancy. Time matters in cancer treatment.
Thank you Nicolas Ferreyros for an outstanding summary of the issues outlining how treatment authorization delays contribute to poor patient survival rates, including death.
At the end of the connection to the authorization process is a human being waiting for care. Proving substandard cancer treatment or forcing patients to give up on life-saving therapy is not what healthcare delivery exemplifies. The patients are just asking for their best option for basic healthcare. That is it. That is all!”
Quoting Nicolas Ferreyros‘ post:
“Prior authorization resulted in adverse events for patients of 30% of physician respondents, including emergency room visits, hospitalization, or permanent disability, with 7% of physicians reporting it as a contributing factor to patient deaths.
Prior authorization drove 82% of responding radiation oncologists to resort to less optimal treatments than initially prescribed, with 65% reporting this occurs in more than 10% of cases, up from 32% in 2019.
More patients face delays from prior authorization, said 68% of physicians, compared with 52% in the 2020 survey, with average delays lasting 5 days or longer in 2024.
Rates of initial approvals and overturned denials are up, said responding doctors, with 71% of prior authorization requests initially approved and 73% of denials overturned on appeal.”
Prior authorization may cause treatment delays for patients, prompt physicians to choose less optimal treatments, cause patients to abandon treatments, and result in adverse events and sometimes death, according to the latest survey of US radiation oncologists by American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) published in Medscape.”
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