New Century Health

New Century Health is a health care management organization founded by Christopher Nee and Joseph M. Perez, which aims to deliver cost-effective cancer care. As of 2013 the Chief Executive Officer is Dr. Atul Dhir. New Century Health promises clients to boost efficiency by bridging together the distinct segments of oncology care: the health plan, the oncologists, and the patients. New Century Health claims to root out common administrative blunders that hinder cancer patient care and therefore raise prices. Already, increasing cancer prevalence causes rising costs;^[1] divided health care departments only amplify the costs of cancer drugs, which are "already among the costliest in medical care".^[2]

Business

Since its establishment in 2007, New Century Infusion Solutions manages approximately 500,000 accounts divided into 100,000 Medicare and 400,000 Medicaid and Commercial (2009). It operates in Florida, California, and Texas and is expanding into Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Cancer Care

Oncology care—or cancer care—is one industry whose “costs continue to rise” ^[3] "largely due to the increase in cancer prevalence and the incorporation...of novel, highly expensive drugs".^[1] Additionally, the provision of oncology care remains extremely fragmented. The medical health plans, its medical oncologists (doctors specializing in the study and treatment of cancer), radiation therapists, and pharmacies all work on separate “silos”; and instead of coordinating all parts in the continuum of cancer care, each stakeholder performs its functions in its own processes according to its own system. This fragmentation often leads to inefficient, if not wasteful, use of resources. Further causing inefficiency in oncology care is the fact that the incentives of stakeholders are often mis-aligned.

As an oncology management company, NCH aims to bridge the fragmented segments in the cancer care delivery system to bring cost-effective care and maintain high-quality care. This type of concentrated focus allows NCH to be an expert in the specialty of oncology. An example of focused expertise is demonstrated by the fact that NCH employs oncologists, hematologists (blood specialists), and radiation therapists as medical directors to review prescriptions. Because "off-label therapy for cancer drugs is common in practice",^[4] NCH feels that having the expertise of doctors who only specialize in oncology provides better care for their oncology patients. In one particular case, an NCH medical director—Myron “Mickey” Goldsmith, MD (and Chief Medical Officer of NCH)—explains how once:

“…a health plan reviewer approved Avastin for a squamous-cell carcinoma (a type of lung cancer) patient because it was FDA approved for adeno lung cancer (a non-squamous cell form of lung cancer). However, Avastin is not approved for squamous-cell carcinoma—the type of lung cancer that this particular patient had. I was able to collaborate with the health plan’s medical reviewer, prescriber and patient to amend the original therapy to save the health plan thousands of dollars and the patient the need to go through a potentially ineffective or dangerous treatment...In another case, one of the health plan reviewers approved the use of Avastin for a colon cancer patient. However, that reviewer did not realize that Avastin was not approved for the particular stage of colon cancer the patient had…” (Source: Myron "Mickey" Goldsmith, Chief Medical Officer of NCH)

References

External links

• New Century Health
• FDA Off-label Drugs Regulatory Information