Blue Cross and the American Society of Clinical Oncology unite to improve care, cut costs in Michigan

American Society of Clinical Oncology and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan will collect cancer information from 11 oncology practices in Michigan. Each physician will be paid around $3000.00 for their time in for the collection process. This is good for the exchange of information for the physicians, but on the other hand, what does this offer Blue Cross, more patient data, perhaps some of this ending up with the FDA with the recent agreements to furnish additional information for disease data mining from that side of the coin. BD

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the state's largest health insurer, is teaming up with a national cancer organization to collect and analyze treatment data on tens of thousands of patients in Michigan. It's the latest push by the nonprofit insurer to help improve patient care and trim health care costs for its clients by working with hospitals and doctors to pool medical information on everything from treating breast cancer to heart surgery.

Blues, cancer group unite to improve care, cut costs