An ASTRO First:

It has been a very lively spring and summer of 2024 for our ASTRO members! This is especially true for those members who are engaged in our Health Policy (HP) and Government Relations (GR) Councils. At our ASTRO Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, I fielded questions on a wide-ranging set of hot topics from clinical supervision, non-compete rules, the radiotherapy workforce, and the Radiation Oncology Case Rate (ROCR) program. I’ll share some highlights here, but I encourage you to visit the ASTRO website for more information.

Earlier this spring, ASTRO sent a letter to CMS regarding supervision requirements that generated vigorous discussion on our ROhub website and other social media channels. In response to these comments, we hosted a town hall that had more than 200 attendees. We really appreciated the genuine, honest feedback from both members and nonmembers during that call. Clearly, not all members were aligned with our recommendation for a return to direct supervision for all radiation therapy treatments. Many voiced an opinion for flexibility surrounding a radiation oncologist’s presence in the clinic that was short of 100%. In order to gather more insight into this topic, ASTRO established a Supervision Task Force made up of a diverse group of physicians representing varied geography, practice types and sizes. At the time of print, it was anticipated that they will provide a report in late June that will help us inform CMS once a proposed rule is presented to providers around mid-summer.

In April, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a final rule that prohibits employers from enforcing non-compete agreements against workers other than senior executives. This rule has far reaching implications across the house of medicine as well as other skilled trades and professions. Undoubtedly, this decision will impact many members of our specialty as they consider their current and future employment circumstances. The rule contains many caveats and exceptions, some of which may face legal challenges. If a member has questions as to how this federal rule may impact their individual circumstances, it is advised they consult their legal counsel.

A huge thank you to our ASTRO staff and HP and GR volunteers that put together the ROCR program legislation. It is an enormous task to draft and submit legislation, but our team has secured bipartisan sponsorship for this program. If enacted, it will stabilize Medicare payments for radiation oncology services while saving the government a substantial amount. Incentives will be aligned toward guideline driven therapy that will benefit our patients and our ASTRO members. In the weeks and months to come we will ask our members to reach out to their congressional representatives and urge them to support this legislation.

This issue of ASTROnews is dedicated to the challenges many medical organizations face — the shortage of skilled, certified health care workers. For our specialty, we are seeing challenges in the hire of radiation therapists, dosimetrists, nurses and medical physicists. The reasons for these shortages are manifold and elaborated upon in the accompanying articles. Solutions to increase the numbers of qualified individuals to enter these fields are offered. Consistently cited is the need to maintain high levels of job satisfaction for those professionals that currently serve our patients. This will keep our current workforce engaged, raise the visibility and respect of these careers, and attract more young people to radiation oncology.