NEW YORK – OneOncology and Employer Direct Healthcare (EDH) on Tuesday said they are partnering to expand EDH's oncology offerings and improve access to precision medicine, clinical trials, and new treatments like CAR T-cell therapy.
Within the partnership, Nashville, Tennessee-based OneOncology — a network of community oncology practices comprising some 700 providers at 260 care sites — will share its episode-based payment model in an effort to lower employer costs across EDH.
Meanwhile, Dallas-based EDH, which provides healthcare solutions for self-funded employers and their members, will bring its end-to-end oncology solution, which includes Jasper Health's digital platform, to its members with cancer to navigate their care all in one place.
OneOncology and EDH will work together to improve reimbursement for precision oncology treatments and increase access to clinical trials and emerging treatments across community oncology settings. They will collaborate as well to bring value-based care programs to patients and develop clinical pathways.
The OneOncology community-based network will complement EDH's existing network of NCI-designated cancer centers, in part to ensure that employees can access high-quality care closer to home.
OneOncology has previously inked collaborations with drug and diagnostic companies in an effort to expand precision oncology care across community cancer centers. In 2020, for instance, the network joined forces with Genentech to improve comprehensive genomic profiling access within community care settings. That partnership resulted in Genentech launching a basket trial, in which patients in the OneOncology Research Network can enroll. The effort has generated data, revealing slightly improved uptake of precision oncology care, but pervasive next-generation sequencing access disparities among lung cancer patients treated in the community setting.
"Community oncology is the definition of value-based care," OneOncology CEO Jeff Patton said in a statement. "In addition to the benefits of improved patient access and experience, community oncology provides material cost savings compared to hospital-based care. This is further enhanced by the value-enabling tools and payment models we are developing at OneOncology to help combat rising healthcare costs."