In January 2019, the Policy Task Group for the National Navigation Roundtable released an issue brief entitled, “Patient Navigation in Cancer Care: Review of Payment Models for a Sustainable Future.” This resource outlines the various ways in which patient navigation services are currently funded. Case examples of short-term, long-term, and alternative funding models are given as well as their respective benefits and challenges. Finally, this document provides several recommendations for policy makers, payers, and stakeholders to improve payment models and to promote the sustainability and expansion of patient navigation in cancer care.
Monica Dean, Director of the National Navigation Roundtable, released this comment on the publication: “We hope this resource helps educate interested stakeholders on the current status and trends in payment models for patient navigators and also encourages decision-makers to take specific steps to sustainably embed navigation into cancer prevention, screening, treatment, and survivorship care.”
Several grantees of the Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care are working with the National Navigation Roundtable to uphold their stated mission of “achieving health equity and access to quality care across the cancer continuum through effective patient navigation.” Dr. Beth Calhoun of the University of Arizona Cancer Center leads the NNRT as a member of the Steering Committee. She is also a co-lead of the Evidence Based Promising Practices Task Group, where Dr. Sanja Percac-Lima from Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Dr. Electra Paskett of the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center are members.
The Alliance has partnered with the National Navigation Roundtable on the webinar “A Report from the National Navigation Roundtable: The State of Patient Navigation Today.”