Radiation pharmacist.

Some suggest radiation oncologists should broaden their scope of practice by embracing more palliative care and medical management responsibilities to avoid the perception that we are simply dispensers of a therapy recommended by other physicians who really call the shots. On the other hand, the current procedure-heavy reimbursement structure does nothing to dissuade the narrowing of radiation oncology practice to its more technical components. Piggybacking off an annual report of average RVU generation across specialties, this simple simulation explores the financial implications of a rad onc dedicating, say, one out of five clinic days to strictly palliative and other medical care. The resulting expected impact on annual salary would be a relative decrease of 7-10% across ranks—exclusive of technical fees, which, if one enjoys those, greatly accentuate the deficit. | Rapp, Pract Radiat Oncol 2021