ACCC, COA, & Oncology Congress News

The following information has been received by ANCO.


****ACCC NEWS****
The Association of Community Cancer Center's (ACCC) This Week At ACCC was published today and is available at http://www.accc-cancer.org/mediaroom/newsletters/2009/media_ACCCNEWSLETTER_2-9-2009.html. ANCO is an Institutional Member of ACCC. This edition features:

ACCC Submits Comments to CMS About NCD on FDG PET for Solid Tumors

Patient Navigation, Prostate Cancer Best Practices at ACCC's National Meeting

Sneak Peek: ACCC Meeting to Showcase More Than 60 Exhibitors

ACCC Launches 2009 Cancer Program Administrator Survey

Cancer Patients Struggle to Maintain Affordable Health Coverage After Diagnosis

White Paper Released on Management of Oral Oncology Regimens

Do You Have a Yen to Write? Oncology Issues Seeks a Few Good Authors

Q&A on ACCC's Listserv: Billing for Cone Beam CT, Co-Pay Assistance

ACCC's CE Blackboard: A Full Range of Courses

ACCC Is Now on Facebook

State Medical Oncology Societies Host Membership Meetings


****COA NEWS****
The NEW COA Administrators’ Network (CAN) website will be officially launched at the Community Oncology Conference this Thursday, 2/5.

Bobbi Buell, the CAN Web Mistress, presides over a website that features the latest information and resources for community oncology practice administrators.

The underlying theme of CAN is to help community oncology practices communicate on a variety of operational, clinical, and strategic matters.
The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) will be unveiling the COA Administrators’ Network (CAN) website at the Community Oncology Conference in Scottsdale,Arizona this Thursday, February 5th. CAN co-chairs Kent Butcher (Oklahoma Oncology) and Bo Gamble (Southeastern Medical Oncology Center) will be introducing CAN and the new website during the first day of the Conference.

CAN was created in response to input from community oncology practice administrators across the United States. Although practices have affiliations with purchasing groups and other commercial organizations, administrators talked about the need for an umbrella organization to bring all practices together. As a not-for-profit, it was agreed that COA was an entity that could provide a forum for community oncology practice administrators to come together to exchange information and resources. This is meant to augment the work other organizations are doing to create active information exchange among practices.

The CAN website is accessible via the main COA website (http://www.communityoncology.org). Bobbi Buell, well known as the community oncology Coding Mistress, presides as CAN Web Mistress. As you will see when you access the CAN website, a highlight of the site is the Administrators’ Exchange, a blog/forum type area where you can post and reply to information on a variety of important topics to community oncology practice administrators. Additionally, there are interest areas where Bobbi has posted a variety of presentations, tools, resources, and even recent copies of her newsletter.

In addition to the co-chairs, Kent Butcher and Bo Gamble, fifteen other practice administrators from around the country comprise the CAN leadership team. Each member of the CAN leadership team represents a MAC region. The team has been actively involved in the design of the CAN website, making sure that it covers all areas of importance for their administrator peers. Additionally, Ricky Newton is directing a landmark data gathering and benchmarking initiative, initially involving collecting operational and financial information from the practices represented by the CAN leadership team. This will be expanded to allow all practices to participate as soon as the benchmark templates and database are finished.

The CAN leadership team will be meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona before the start of the Community Oncology Conference. Look for more details out of the Conference.

The CAN website you see today is only the start! It was created by and for community oncology practice administrators. It is meant to be a living site, with its value growing as new information and resources are added by administrators. COA is committed to community oncology by unifying practices, providing a forum to help enhance operational efficiency, and advocating in Washington, DC and elsewhere for the community oncology delivery system. More so than ever, COA is focused on unifying community oncology and the COA Administrators’ Network is just another step in that direction.


****Oncology Congress NEWS****
The Oncology Congress has created a survey at the link below, for ANCO members. We encourage you to provide them with your feedback.

Survey Link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Xpq3RiwJFf2eC_2biIlYmBYg_3d_3d