Efficiency pays.

It’s approaching a full decade since ASTRO officially recommended hypofractionation as the preferred approach for whole breast radiation for women over 50, with follow-up recs broadened to basically everyone. The uptake, on the other hand, has been, well, slow. This claims data analysis from 2012-2018 explores whether largely unpopular payer incentives (e.g. full reimbursement awarded only for hypofractionation) actually impact utilization of such regimens. To no big surprise, they do. Among over 10K women in a similar practice setting, the one-third who were fully insured by the aforementioned payer saw a significantly swifter rise in utilization than the others. TBL: Payer policies can, in fact, notably influence radiation oncology practices. | Parkih, JAMA Oncol 2020