October 2, 2020
Alex M. Azar, II, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Seema Verma, Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Hubert H. Humphrey Building
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Dear Secretary Azar and Administrator Verma:
On behalf of the nation’s physicians, group practices, radiation oncologists and other cancer care providers committed to value-based care, we are writing to seek urgent changes to the final Radiation Oncology Alternative Payment Model (RO Model) before it is implemented on January 1, 2021. Given the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing public health emergency, we request that you delay the model implementation until January 1, 2022, or at the earliest July 1, 2021, and reduce the excessive payment cuts to mandated radiation oncology participants.