On a typical day, oncologist Dr. Linda Bosserman spends hours poring over lists meant to guide clinicians toward the optimal course of treatment. These "clinical pathways" are based on the cancer's stage and location in the body, and patient-specific factors, like comorbidities.
Then, after she and the patient have chosen a plan, Bosserman says she spends hours explaining to payers how and why the choice was made.
Because payers and for-profit companies create and distribute these pathways and because many are tailored to different agendas, the process is laden with inadequacies, conflicts of interest and “unsustainable” administrative burden, said the American Society of Clinical Oncology in a new policy statement, of which Bosserman was the senior author.
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