Revenues from Patient Encounters and Establishment of an Outpatient Palliative Care Program in a Community Oncology Practice.

Abstract

<b><i>Background:</i></b> There is increasing interest in expanding palliative care (PC) services in the community-based outpatient oncology clinic. However, there is a paucity of data on the economics of integrating palliative medicine in this setting. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> Provide scheduling and financial data on PC physician encounters, charges, and reimbursement in a community-based oncology practice. <b><i>Design:</i></b> Retrospective review of billing data and scheduling software at a single practice. <b><i>Setting:</i></b> A community-based oncology practice comprised of 25 medical oncologists in 8 suburban offices. PC physicians were integrated into the practice. <b><i>Measurement:</i></b> Billed PC physician charges were analyzed on an annual basis for a four-year period from initial start-up of the PC clinic on September 2, 2014 to August 31, 2018. <b><i>Results:</i></b> During year 1, a single PC physician saw 483 new patients and 827 follow-up encounters in four different office locations. In year 2, he saw 471 new patients and 1229 follow-up encounters. Actual collected revenue for those 1700 encounters was $228,168. In year 3, a second PC physician was added and services were expanded to a total of six offices. In year 4, two PC physicians billed for 832 new encounters and 2450 follow-up encounters for a total collected revenue of $454,356. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> In a suburban community-based oncology practice, a PC physician can support a substantial part of his or her cost to an oncology practice.