Color, a virtual cancer clinic, announced Tuesday that it has expanded its Expert Medical Opinion services to include a new peer-to-peer program.
San Francisco-based Color serves employers, health plans, unions and the public sector. It helps identify high-risk members, screens patients, provides clinical care for those in treatment and supports cancer survivors. Color’s Expert Medical Opinion program provides multidisciplinary reviews at every clinical decision point for enrolled patients through the company’s 50-state medical group.
The company has expanded the program with a new peer-to-peer service that connects patients and their oncologists with specialists at Color. Prior to the expansion, multidisciplinary reviews were only provided to those currently enrolled in Color’s program. But the peer-to-peer program allows Color to proactively identify and review complex cancer cases within health plan and employer populations using claims and prior authorization data, even if those patients are not currently enrolled in Color’s program.
Color will then work with the patient’s local provider and discuss recommendations with the provider, as well as work with the patient for supportive care and clinical guidance.
To support this expansion, Color has also brought on additional specialists and sub-specialists from National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers, including for breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, gynecologic oncology, cancer genetics, cardio-oncology and palliative care. These specialists offer multidisciplinary diagnosis reviews, tumor boards and ongoing treatment evaluations.
“While a traditional second opinion is one consultation with one expert at one point in time, cancer is always evolving,” said Caroline Savello, president of Color Health. “Diagnoses progress, treatments change, toxicities emerge, and clinical trials open and close. What patients actually need is ongoing, multidisciplinary review from a team that knows their case and has the authority to act on what it finds. That has historically only been available to a small fraction of patients with the rarest and most complex cases, largely because convening a panel of subspecialists requires high cost, coordination, and proximity to a major academic center.”
Data from Color’s Expert Medical Opinion service shows that 95% of patients have had at least one recommended change in their care and that the program has created an estimated $62,000 in average cost savings per patient.
Ultimately, the goal for the expansion of the program is to make “ongoing multidisciplinary care the rule rather than the exception,” Savello added.
“What we’re offering goes well past a second opinion. A second opinion is a snapshot. What Color provides is an ongoing, expert-informed, multidisciplinary partnership for the entire treatment journey,” Savello said. “Our clinical team holds a real relationship with the patient and the provider, and we’re empowered to act on what we find.”
Photo: Volha Rahalskaya, Getty Images
