Wade Swenson, Founder of Rural Cancer Institute and Medical Director, Medical Oncologist, and Hematologist at Lakewood Health System, shared a post on LinkedIn about a paper he co-authored with colleagues published in JCO Oncology Practice:
“Highlighting Rural Oncology Realities: Our Poster at ASCOQCS25.
Our group presented ‘Impact of Prior Authorization for Oncology Medications on Practices with Majority Rural Patient Populations’ at the 2025 ASCO Quality Care Symposium in Chicago (October 10-11, 2025)!
The Challenge: Prior authorizations (PA) create burdens and delays in cancer care – especially in rural settings where every day counts.
Our Multi-Site Study (Abstract 55):
3 Rural-Focused Practices: Lakewood Health System (Staples, MN), Mayo Clinic Health System–Northfield (MN), and Self Regional Healthcare (Greenwood, SC)
129 PA Submissions (Oct-Dec 2024) for IV/subQ therapies
100% Approved – but 209 Patient-Days Delayed (0-18 days each!)
Key Takeaway: All PAs approved, but avoidable delays strain rural patients and teams. Time for PA reform!”
Title: Impact of prior authorization for oncology medications on practices with majority rural patient populations
Authors: Joshua C. Pritchett, Zachary Schroeder, Emily McGovern, Jeanie Troy, Heidi Hughes, Lisa Nelson, Ruiling Xu Yuan, Kristina R. Nelson, Grant Perschke, Benjamin Kelly, Scott A. Soefje, Jonathan Ticku, Jasmine Kamboj, and Wade Thomas Swenson II
You can read the Full Article in JCO Oncology Practice.
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