SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ: ARAY) today published an informational guide designed to help radiation oncology practices understand the complexities of the much-anticipated proposed Medicare & Medicaid reimbursement changes. The new guide — available at www.accuray.com/apm/ — serves as an informational tool for healthcare providers who find themselves balancing their desire to invest in improved patient treatment technologies with the disruptiveness of a new billing model. Titled, "Thriving Under the Radiation Oncology Alternative Payment Model: A Definitive Guide to a New Reality," the guide aims to help radiation oncology professionals understand the changes outlined in the Radiation Oncology – Alternative Payment Model (RO-APM).
"We believe that the proposed alternative payment model will reshape economic realities and evolve clinical best practices for radiation oncologists," said Joshua H. Levine, President and Chief Executive Officer of Accuray. "Accuray technologies uniquely empower the clinical capabilities necessary to thrive under the proposed reimbursement changes. We are ready to help our customers understand how the RO-APM will likely impact the use of our products in their practices."
The July 2019 announcement of the RO-APM outlined a progressive course toward value-based care, shifting reimbursement to prospective, episode-based payments and providing equal base-rate compensation at the tumor-site-specific level — regardless of technique or modality, number of fractions delivered or setting of care. Among the immediately evident impacts, the episodic payment model aligns patient, provider and payer interests with a shift to delivering hypofractionated radiotherapy wherever clinically appropriate — which should firmly establish hypofractionation as an essential treatment modality.
"Growing evidence demonstrates hypofractionation as a proven treatment modality that delivers clinical outcomes as good as conventional fractionation while dramatically reducing the number of treatments — and dramatically lowering the total cost of care," said Levine. "As both the pioneer and the continued innovation leader in hypofractionation, Accuray provides an unmatched set of tools developed specifically to give radiation oncologists the confidence they need to deliver safe, efficient and effective hypofractionated treatments to their patients."
