Many hospitals that support cancer programs continue to rely on ICD-9 and inpatient volumes to assess the financial and “health & vitality” of their cancer programs. Data show ICD-9 computations woefully undercount cancer patient volume and revenue. It is vital to ensure hospital leaders understand cancer is primarily an outpatient service that drives not only oncology volumes, but diagnostic and pathology service volumes, as well.
The Oncology Group is a leader in cancer program data analysis and application of this data to cancer program planning. TOG’s data information provides cancer program, physicians, and hospital leaders with information on site-specific cancer patient volume, oncology’s contribution to margin, referring physician volumes, institutional trends in geographic reach, and much valuable data on which firm growth and development plans depend.