The mission of NNECOS is to promote the highest quality care for patients with cancer and blood disorders in our region through professional networking, education, and scientific research, as well as patient advocacy and public policy.

NNECOS News!

ANNUAL MEETING UPDATE


Let's Reconnect!

Early Registration Ends Friday!

Friday is your last chance to take advantage of early registration discounts while also securing the best accommodations onsite! We're looking forward to reconnecting in person for our 2022 NNECOS Annual Meeting, October 28-29, 2022 at the Omni Mt. Washington Resort!

Program highlights include:

  • Using Nutritional Psychiatry with Uma Naidoo, MD
  • What's New and What's Not in Cancer Pain Management with Mary Lynn McPherson, PharmD
  • De-Escalation in Head and Neck Cancer in the Era of Personalized Medicine with Sue S. Yom, MD

View the full agenda at nnecos.org/2022-annual/#agenda. Take time for yourself to reset and recharge at this year's annual meeting. We hope to see you there!

REGISTER
 

Rooming List

Room Reservation Procedure

New This Year! Accommodation requests will be processed at the time of meeting registration* - directly through NNECOS. Indicate your room request/needs at the time of registration and you're in line for the best available room as part of our discounted attendee room block. A limited number of rooms have been set aside at the Omni Mt. Washington ($244/night*), Bretton Arms ($224/night**), and the Lodge ($166/night**). 

Here's how it works:

  • Register for the meeting, and be sure to indicate your accommodations request.
  • NNECOS submits your name to the hotel to be added to our special block of discounted rooms
  • The hotel emails you your confirmation number, along with a telephone number to call with your credit card to secure the room.

*Corporate members have a separate allotment of rooms. Please check with your company's primary contact for more details.

**Plus tax and discounted $25 resort fee.  

NNECOS UPDATES


NNECOS Research Funding Program - Collaborative Research Funding Opportunities - Submission Deadline September 15th - nnecos.org/research

RESEARCH DEADLINE APPROACHING!

The Northern New England Clinical Oncology Society (NNECOS) is seeking proposals for investigative projects of value to the Northern New England community of cancer care providers. Our goal is to fund one or more proposals, up to a total of $20,000 for the September 2022 application cycle. Eligible candidates will be a current NNECOS member in good standing. Fellows and members of the interdisciplinary-care team are strongly encouraged to apply. Projects should align with our mission to promote the highest quality care for patients with cancer and blood disorders in our region. Preference will be given to projects promoting collaboration among NNECOS institutions (academic and community). Apply by September 15th! 

LEARN MORE
NNECOS Lunchtime Best Oncology Practice Series

Fabulous content has been scheduled to round out the year for the NNECOS Lunchtime Best Oncology Practice Series! Next week, "Measurable (Minimal) Residual Disease (MRD) in Lymphoid Malignancies: Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) will be presented by Adaptive Technologies. Coming in October, Bayer will present "Knowing Your Driver - Using Precision Oncology to inform Diagnosis and Treatment Decisions. Then, in November, Jay Lee, RT(T) will present an original content webinar, "Bringing Awareness to Cultural Differences to Improve Health Care." You won't want to miss this great line-up. 

Set a recurring appointment on your calendar for the third Thursday of each month, and plan to share your lunchtime with NNECOS. View the current schedule and sign-up for the NNECOS Lunchtime Best Oncology Practice Series at nnecos.org/lunchtime.

REGISTER TODAY!
 
NNECOS Educational Program Grants

Educational Program Grants Available!

As a core part of our educational mission, NNECOS launched an educational program grant funding opportunity for member practices across Northern New England in 2016.

Our goal with this grant is to make it easy to obtain funding for regional educational events targeting the gamut of cancer care providers including physicians, nurses and other critical allied health care providers, as well as programs geared to patients, their families, and the general public.

APPLY TODAY!
NNECOS Classifieds

Looking for a new opportunity? Check out the NNECOS Classifieds, a networking page for members to share and explore career opportunities available in our region.

  • NEW! UVM Medical Center - CVMC - Medical Oncologist / Hematologist - general oncology and hematology (benign and malignant disease) and includes inpatient consult service and outpatient clinics 

To learn more about this and other opportunities, visit nnecos.org/classifieds

NNECOS Helps Cancer Patient Support Fondation

In a recent report from the Cancer Patient Support Foundation of Vermont, we had the opportunity to learn more about how local patients with cancer were impacted by the NNECOS Emergency Need Grant. In total, 11 local patients received vital assistance beyond the program's Emergency Fund cap, instilling a sense of hope and relief in a time of need. 

If you'd like to learn more about how the NNECOS Emergency Need Grant and Grocery/Gas Card Programs could help your patients, visit nnecos.org/ccsc.  

ASCO in Action

ACT Now! Prevent Looming Cuts to Medicare Reimbursement

Medicare providers are once again set to face another round of significant payment cuts if Congressional action is not taken prior to January 1, 2023. The recently released CY23 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule jeopardizes the financial stability of many physician practices by proposing to cut the Medicare conversion factor by approximately 4.5%. These cuts, combined with the pending threat of the 4% PAYGO reduction and the termination of the 2% sequestration moratorium in July 2022, create for a nearly 10% reduction in revenue.

The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), along with the entire House of Medicine, is asking Congress to take the following action to address the proposed cuts:

  • Provide at least a 4.5% conversion factor adjustment for 2023
  • Waive the 4% statutory PAYGO requirement
  • Eliminate the 2% sequestration cuts to Part B services
  • Provide a one-year inflationary update based on the Medicare Economic Index

It is vital that Congress takes action to provide financial stability for Medicare providers and help ensure that seniors continue to have access to high-quality care. Please visit the ACT Network and urge your lawmakers to support financial stability for Medicare providers in FY23, and work with stakeholders to establish long-term payment reform.

Diversify Your Cancer Clinical Trials with New ASCO Recruitment and Retention Resources

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) jointly released two resources to help research sites increase racial and ethnic equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in cancer clinical trials.

The Just ASK™ Increasing Diversity in Cancer Clinical Research: An ACCC-ASCO Training Program (Just ASK™ Training Program), and the ASCO-ACCC Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Research Site Self-Assessment (Site Self-Assessment) are available free-of-charge online. This release follows a successful pilot project with 75 research sites across the United States, which assessed the feasibility and utility of the resources.

Read more on ASCO in Action.

 

Evaluation and Management Coding is Changing in 2023

The American Medical Association (AMA) recently released new guidelines for reporting Evaluation and Management (E/M) services, which are to go into effect on January 1, 2023. These changes align with the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT ®) 2021 updates that only applied to the office and outpatient E/M codes.

To help the oncology community prepare for this transition, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has prepared a cancer care-specific overview of the changes. ASCO is also developing other resources to guide oncology practices ahead of the implementation of the new guidance. The Coding & Reimbursement page on ASCO Practice Central will be updated regularly with new resources as they become available. Read more on ASCO in Action.

Register for the September 15 ASCO Practice Leadership Call

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is holding its next Practice Leadership Call on Thursday, September 15, from 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM (ET). In 2021, we introduced ASCO’s Oncology Medical Home (OMH)—a program for piloting payment and care delivery models, improving access to health care, and increasing efficiency to reduce costs for cancer patients. On the next call, Ronda Bowman, MHA, RN, OCN, will provide an update on OMH and how it can help your practice deliver quality care with an evidence-based approach. Register today!

For more information about the ASCO Practice Leadership Call series—as well as slides and recordings of past calls—please visit ASCO Practice Central.

ASCO Resources to Address Physician Burnout & Promotion of Well-Being

ASCO recognizes the impact that clinician burnout has on its members and the oncology community. To assist and support those experiencing burnout, ASCO has created a library of resources, both from ASCO and other organizations, offering insight, research & publications, and member perspectives. Visit ASCO Practice Central to learn more.


Industry-Related Resources

The NNECOS website hosts a variety of collated resources related to cancer medications, including our NNECOS FDA Approvals page  - a chronological, collated resource for the latest approval and indication information. For those times when you're looking for a specific manufacturer or drug-specific reimbursement contact, check out our Regional Reimbursement Contacts page. For your convenience, we also provide information for you to stay up-to-date with Package/Label and Code updates.

FDA Approvals

  • Sept. 2nd - FDA approves durvalumab for locally advanced or metastatic biliary tract cancer

  • August 26th - FDA Approves pemigatinib for relapsed or refractory myeloid/lymphoid neoplasms with FGFR1 rearrangement
  • August 24th - FDA approves ibrutinib for pediatric patients with chronic graft versus host disease, including a new oral suspension
  • August 10th - FDA approves capmatinib for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer
  • August 5th - FDA approves darolutamide tablets for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer
  • August 5th - FDA approves fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki for HER2-low breast cancer


    Northern New England Clinical Oncology Society
    P.O. Box 643
    Sandown, NH 03873-0643
    Telephone (603) 887-1948
    info@nnecos.org

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