Oncology practices recruit pharmacists for efficiency, savings

Changes to the way the federal government pays physicians for services and supplies have prompted some community-based oncology practices to hire pharmacists to do more than prepare hazardous drugs, according to people knowledgeable about cancer care and its finances. “The larger groups have made the move to work with pharmacists,” said Mary Lou Bowers, a health care consultant in oncology at The Pritchard Group LLC in Rockville, Maryland. Before joining Pritchard, she held a similar position for eight years at ELM Services Inc., also in Rockville. Bowers estimated that 70–80% of large oncology practices, having at least eight oncologists on staff, employ pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Although large oncology practices constitute less than 40% of the oncologist work force, they conduct about 40% of the oncology business in the country, she said. Congress’s Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, during visits to five metropolitan areas and states in 2004 and 2005, found several community-based oncology practices with pharmacist employees.