Oncology Mgmt-SWON Information Exchange May

Genentech, Inc. recently announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval of Avastin® (bevacizumab) for patients with glioblastoma with progressive disease following prior therapy. For more information, please see the complete PRESS RELEASE from Genentech.

Please also see the Avastin PI.

Abraxane Patient Assistance Program Updated

The Abraxis Patient Access Program (APAP) income guideline has increased from a gross annual family household income of $75,000 to 100,000. This program change is effective Monday, July 14,2008, for both uninsured and underinsured Abraxane patients. All other program guidelines remain unchanged: patients must be permanently residing in the United States or its territories, and the program covers any diagnosis deemed medically necessary by the MD.

APAP Patient Applications can be obtained in the ARC section of www.abraxane.com or by contacting the ARC of Support Reimbursement Services at 800-564-0216, option 3, Monday through Friday from 8am to 8pm ET.

Key Health Care Initiatives in President Obama's FY2010 Budget

On May 7, 2009, President Barack H. Obama submitted a detailed Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposal (Budget) to the U.S. Congress, an expansion of a budget outline he released in February 2009. The Budget would boost funding for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to $879 billion in FY10, an increase of $63 billion over FY09.

Consistent with the February outline, the Budget establishes a Health Reform Reserve Fund of $635 billion over 10 years, supported in part by a reduction of $309 billion in Medicare and Medicaid spending over the same period.

The administration states that savings will be achieved in three areas to finance the reserve fund: "aligning incentives toward quality, promoting efficiency and accountability, and encouraging shared responsibility."

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SWON Information Exchange - May 2009

Greetings!

SWON welcomed its 245th physician to the network this week and our group purchasing volume continues to climb! Our vision of unity and collaboration has fast-tracked SWON as a leader in the oncology industry in terms of competitive pricing, timely industry updates, and an overall superior value proposition.

Rather than submit small talk about the rainy spring season (please remind me that I was tired of rain when we are baking this summer), the quickly approaching French Open, or the uncertainty of how the health care initiatives contained in the Administration's 2010 budget with affect community oncology, I will take this space to trumpet our achievements, growth, and important announcements since our last publication.

Q1 REBATES: SWON'ers will share in more $50,000 in rebates tied to participation in Q1 2009. For those that qualify, please expect your checks in the next few weeks. As announced in January and subsequent emails, faxes, and mailings, all practices must have the new one (1) page OS participation form on file.

SWON ADDITION: Please help me welcome SWON's new Membership Manager, Melissa Welch. Melissa brings almost twenty years of marketing and membership management experience to the SWON team. She graduated with a BS in journalism with an emphasis on public relations from the University of Kansas. SWON is thrilled to have Melissa develop our newsletters, update the website, manage our membership activities, and ensure that the efforts of our network are communicated effectively to the group.

PRICE MATCHING: SWON's strategy for remaining competitive in this fluid contracting market lies in the price matching provision in the contract with our preferred vendor, Oncology Supply.   'One price match- all price match' allows the savings the SWON member's achieve to automatically benefit the entire organization. If you find a better price on a product from a competitor, submit to Lesli Lord or Brandon Osborn and we will work to match the price -not only for the submitting practice but for the entire membership within same terms (certain restrictions apply). The terms of the price matching provision are contained in the SWON Price Matching Policy. For a copy, please contact Lesli Lord or Melissa Welch (mjfwelch20@yahoo.com). Recent price matches awarded to ZED/ZEC members include:

·         Ceftriaxone 1GM SDV 10/PK
·         Irinotecan 20 MG/ML SDV 2ML
·         Irinotecan 20 MG/ML SDV 5ML

SWON is grateful to Brandon Osborn for his efforts on behalf of Oncology Supply to assist SWON in its goals towards fulfilling the group's mission.  He is a huge asset to SWON and a true advocate for community oncology.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS: Due to the growth of SWON, we no longer have sufficient newsletter space to fit the listing of members but wish them a sincere gratitude for joining. Since January, we have welcome practices from:

Texas: San Antonio, Richmond, Brenham, Duncanville, Edinburg, Port Arthur, Jackson, San Angelo, Houston, Dallas
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, Enid
Louisiana: Monroe, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles
Kansas: Garden City

United we can make a difference. As our purchasing power grows and networking increases, so too does our ability to negotiate greater product savings.

Thank you for joining SWON. Please contact me if you have suggestions for increased value to you and your practice.

Warm regards,

Lesli Lord
Executive Director

972-540-9411

Upcoming Workshop: ICD-9 and ICD-10 For Dummies

When:Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 2:00pm EDT

Speaker: Bobbi Buell, M.B.A.

Bobbi Buell, M.B.A. is an independent consultant in oncology reimbursement and practice managment. Ms. Buell has many years of experience in the health care system and is an accomplished health care regulatory and reimbursement expert.

For more information, contact your ION RM, or you can REGISTER for the event now.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Julie Goldberg at julie.goldberg@iononline.com

Obama's push for healthcare cuts faces daunting odds

President Obama pronounced yesterday "a historic day, a watershed event," because doctors, hospitals, drug makers and insurance companies voluntarily offered $2 trillion in cost reductions over 10 years. But if history is a guide, their commitments may not produce the promised savings, according to this analysis from the New York Times. Their proposals are vague, and none of the savings are guaranteed, the analysis states. Without such a guarantee, budget rules would normally prevent Congress from using the savings to pay for new initiatives to cover the uninsured.

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Despite fanfare, experts say healthcare industry's cost saving plan lacks key details

Washington Post, May 12, 2009

President Obama appeared to put his faith in pledges from some of the healthcare interest groups that have pledged to cut the rate of growth of national healthcare spending by 1.5 percentage points each year - an amount that's equal to over $2 trillion. Administration allies cheered the news that the health lobby is eager to join reform negotiations, but many offered a cautionary note that warm words from the industry cannot be mistaken for enforceable policy change.

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New I-9 Form
Reed Tinsley, CPA

Are you using the new I-9 form when you hire employees? What is the purpose of the I-9? The form states that it "is to document that each new employee (both citizen and non-citizen) hired after November 6, 1986, is authorized to work in the United States." The following is a Q & A regarding the new form.

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Job Descriptions
Library

PAP

As a member of SWON, practices are offered complimentary and unlimited access to the oncology managers' briefcase website.

OMB is a network for and by oncology healthcare professionals that provides resources for managers in an oncology practice. OMB is a user generated community for sharing professional documents. Practices will find policies and procedures; forms; checklists; job descriptions; a rolodex of consultants, pharma, associations, patient support; a library containing management and healthcare books (powered by Amazon), and so much more!

Register your employees for access to the site. When asked for a password, use "SWON12". After you complete your registration, you will be asked to pay the subscription rate. DO NOT PAY. At the end of each day, SWON will override the payment system and open the registration. You will receive a confirmation of access within 24 hours.

USE "SWON12" as your password