Speaker: Professor Kees van Gool

Date: Tuesday, 20th September

Time: 12 -1pm

One of the key aims of the Centre of Research Excellence on Value-Based Payments is to identify if current funding and financing arrangements create barriers to optimum care.  In this webinar, we focus on recent trends in radiation oncology services that are funded through the Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS).  Results show that growth in funding has outpaced growth in the volume of services claimed. The main drivers of this increase in funding growth has been the Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN) as well as out-of-pocket (OOP) costs. Results also show that there is a very high degree of variation in OOP costs that create considerable financial uncertainty and potential barriers to access for patients. Current policy settings create perverse incentives within in the system that prevent delivery of the right care, at the right place and at the right price. For this reason, radiation oncology provides an opportunity for funding reform to improve both patient access and the sustainability of public funding.