Dr. David Eagle on Cost-Drivers in Oncology

David Eagle, MD, past president of the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) and partner in Lake Norman Oncology, Mooresville, North Carolina, discuss controlling costs of cancer treatment.

The first step to understanding how to control cancer costs is to understand where money is being spent and why, says Eagle.

Between 2004-2014 the rate of increase of per patient per year spending for those actively receiving cancer treatment was no different than the non-cancer patient population. This was surprising because there has been so much innovation in oncology recently, says Eagle.

The migration of oncology treatments from private practice to hospital outpatient services has also been a major cost driver, says Eagle.

If these patient services had stayed in the private practice instead of migrating to hospitals, Medicare would have saved 2 billion dollars in 2014, predicted Eagle.