In recent weeks, the privately held Cancer Treatment Centers of America has sold the assets of its Philadelphia hospital and closed its hospital in Tulsa.
In Tulsa, CTCA was caught in a larger battle between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma and the state’s healthcare providers, including OU Physicians and St. Francis Health System, both of which are being phased out of the network.
Oklahoma University Stephenson Cancer Center is the only NCI Cancer Center in the state (The Cancer Letter, May 4, 2018).
In the highly competitive Philadelphia market, the CTCA hospital is being sold to Temple University Hospital, which owns Fox Chase Cancer Center (The Cancer Letter, March 5, 2021). Temple officials said to The Cancer Letter that they plan to rehire a large number of CTCA’s 375 employees in Philadelphia.
“The decisions in Philadelphia and Tulsa were based on market factors that, while highlighted during COVID-19, certainly existed before the pandemic,” a CTCA spokesperson said to The Cancer Letter. “Our key focus areas moving forward will be on in-home oncology care options, telehealth, precision medicine, clinical research, and expanding our partnerships and affiliations with other health systems to improve oncology outcomes in additional communities.”
CTCA’s three remaining markets—Chicago, Atlanta and Phoenix—include three hospitals and five outpatient centers.
“The transitions in Philadelphia and Tulsa were based on very specific market conditions that do not exist in Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix. These markets do support patient choice and investment in the future of cancer care,” the spokesperson said.
“CTCA will continue investing in key markets that will build on more than 30 years of patient-centered, high-quality care.”
Philadelphia is a tough market, where CTCA had to compete with three NCI-designated institutions—two of them Comprehensive Cancer Centers—located in the city limits as well as multiple high-quality health systems in the region.
“This past year has highlighted this community’s unique needs for optimal patient access locally, as well as expanded access to services beyond cancer care,” the spokesperson said. “Temple Health is well-positioned to integrate these facilities into a broader continuum of care, while expanding access to their services for the local community. Our top priority will be to ensure the seamless transition of patient care either to another CTCA facility or to a provider of their choice as well as work with Temple Health on employee transitions.”
Temple and CTCA describe their deal as an asset purchase agreement covering the buildings, equipment and supplies of the campus located at 1331 E. Wyoming, Ave., in the Juniata Park section of Philadelphia. The deal is subject to approval by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The purchasing price was not disclosed.
Clouds over Oklahoma
In Tulsa, the company said its departure is prompted by restrictive coverage policies.
Though CTCA didn’t name a specific insurer, other healthcare institutions in the state have been locked in conflict with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma.
“Despite working tirelessly to overcome significant market conditions that inexplicably restrict patient care options, and exhausting all options, unfortunately, we realized the Oklahoma market was not going to expand options for patients to treat at CTCA Tulsa, which led to this very difficult decision,” a CTCA spokesperson said to The Cancer Letter.
To young patients with cancer, the insurer is a threat as ominous as the disease, the OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center declares on its website. “They’re fighting cancer, but now Blue Cross Blue Shield is their biggest threat,” the letter to Oklahomans reads.
“Blue Cross Blue Shield continues to undervalue our pediatric experts, and enough is enough.”
The letter continues:
Blue Cross Blue Shield’s most recent offer to OU Health Physicians was actually lower than the rates in our current contract. They are using their dominance in the Oklahoma market to drive down reimbursement to all providers in Oklahoma.These unacceptable antics are being implemented at a time when their parent company is enjoying soaring profits and excessive executive bonuses.
- Bonuses paid to BCBS executives far exceed the supposedly “excessive” asks of OU Health Physicians.
- Oklahoma is nearly 50th in the nation for the number of physicians it has compared to the number needed to serve its people.
- It is getting more difficult to recruit and retain the type of healthcare talent Oklahomans need and deserve.
- Our ability to recruit and retain is directly tied to the reimbursements we receive from BCBS for our services.
We are asking Blue Cross Blue Shield to invest in Oklahoma healthcare—not executive bonuses and soaring profits.
Responding to questions from an Oklahoma news outlet recently, BCBSOK said OU Physicians group and CTCA patients aren’t precluded from going to out-of-network healthcare providers if they are willing to pay higher out-of-pocket expenses:
As the state’s oldest and largest customer-owned health insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma (BCBSOK) provides access to quality health care for all members. The vast majority of BCBSOK members have coverage for out of network services and can choose to utilize them anywhere they want, including Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA).
It is unfortunate that BCBSOK members receiving care at CTCA’s Tulsa campus will be impacted by the closure. We will work with our members to transition care to other facilities so local treatment can continue. BCBSOK’s network of in-state oncology providers is adequate and robust, enabling Oklahoma residents with Blue Cross Blue Shield coverage, to access high-quality cancer treatment and care.
We negotiated in good faith with OU Physicians group in Oklahoma City to find a mutually beneficial agreement that was in the best interest of our members. We are disappointed that we were not able to reach an agreement with OU Physicians that would keep our members’ premiums and out-of-pocket costs reasonable.
This is not the outcome we had hoped for, but our networks remain strong and our members will continue to have access to thousands of quality, in-network providers in the Oklahoma City metro and across the state.
