NOSN emerged from a desire to increase Advocacy Funding.
Industry may have separate budgets for State Oncology Societies and Government
Relations. As MOASC and other states explored additional advocacy support, it became clear that industry may have separate budgets for state societies and government relations that could facilitate the NOSN initiatives without detracting from existing state society avenues of support.
NOSN is a mechanism to collaborate with Industry’s Government Relations
Industry advocated setting up an independent corporation to serve as a vehicle for industry
to provide government advocacy funding.
Cross State Communications are critical for Patients and Providers
The Need for cross state communication through NOSN was proven when one payer policy erroneously referenced support from one state as justification as to why other states should simply accept it despite numerous concerns. The end result would have been different if NOSN existed
Payers test their initiatives on a small scale, and in a few states, rather than rolling it out to
the entire coverage area.
Told New York and other states that MOASC (S. CA) supported its pathways.
Told ANCO (N. CA) WellPoint had not determined how they were going to use the
compliance information.
Several years ago, one national payer started a pathways initiative and rolled it out in phases with a few beta states in the west. This payer was able to rapidly expand across several states because most state societies did not routinely speak with each other about such issues.
The national payer erroneously told Connecticut, New York and other states that these pathways were supported by MOASC in southern CA. The national payer also told individual state societies different information about how and whether compliance with the pathways was going to be tracked or used in a a punitive fashion to determine future contracting opportunities with non-compliant physicians/practices.