DeWITT — Hematology-Oncology Associates of Central New York, P.C., the region’s largest private cancer practice, estimates it will lose about $500,000 annually in Medicare funding following the sequester budget cuts that took effect on April 1. The practice is not considering layoffs as a result of the funding reduction and will not turn away patients, […]
DeWITT — Hematology-Oncology Associates of Central New York, P.C., the region’s largest private cancer practice, estimates it will lose about $500,000 annually in Medicare funding following the sequester budget cuts that took effect on April 1.
The practice is not considering layoffs as a result of the funding reduction and will not turn away patients, Maryann Roefaro, CEO of Hematology-Oncology Associates (HOA), says in an interview.
A number of cancer clinics, including Long Island’s North Shore Hematology Oncology Associates, have made big headlines recently, by announcing they would stop seeing some Medicare patients, citing the sequester budget cuts.
Instead, HOA doctors’ pay may be reduced. If the practice is facing a budget deficit at year’s end, then the physicians will “have to eat that deficit with it coming out of their compensation,” Roefaro says. “So, that will totally depend on how it all shakes out at the end of the year.”
Roefaro declined to disclose what percentage that $500,000 Medicare cut represents in the medical practice’s annual-revenue figure, which she also declined to disclose.
The federal cuts included a 2 percent reduction in Medicare payments, which for HOA, will affect what it pays for cancer drugs, Roefaro says, noting that about 60 percent of the estimated $500,000 cut is related to the cost of drugs.
Oncologists had been paid for the drugs, plus 6 percent to cover costs. Now, that 6 percent has been reduced to 4 percent in the Medicare cut.
“There will be a handful of drugs that actually will cost us more to purchase than we will get paid,” Roefaro explains.
Dealing with this cut in Medicare funding will be “difficult,” but Roefaro says the only reason that it’s not “devastating” and that HOA can sustain the business “is because we’re large, we’re diversified, we … have a large market share of [cancer patients in] Central New York.”
The practice treated more than 16,000 patients in more than 112,000 visits in 2012, Roefaro says.
“Out of those 16,000 patients that came in, about 50 percent are Medicare [patients],” she says.
About the practice
Hematology-Oncology Associates of Central New York employs about 265 employees total.
The practice is headquartered in a 65,000-square-foot facility at 5008 Brittonfield Parkway in DeWitt. It also operates locations on the Upstate University Hospital Community Campus in Onondaga, at the North Medical Center in Clay, as well as sites in Auburn and Rome, according to its website.
Fourteen physicians are equal owners of HOA, Roefaro says. The owner-physicians also serve as the practice’s board of directors.
Drs. John Gullo and Santo DiFino founded Hematology-Oncology Associates of Central New York in 1982. Drs. Jeffrey Kirshner and Anthony Scalzo soon after joined Gullo and DiFino are considered the “four founding partners” of HOA, according to its website.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com