Assessing the quality of chemotherapy in an episode-based funding model in Ontario.

1 Background: On April 1, 2014, the delivery of systemic treatment in Ontario transitioned to an episode-based funding model, which provides bundled payments for a full course of therapy delivered with adjuvant/curative intent and a monthly bundled payment for palliative intent. Disease Site Teams have defined treatment options and “best practice” for each funded adjuvant/curative regimen. Methods: The utilization of treatment according to disease and intent was analyzed for 35 systemic treatment facilities in Ontario, comparing actual practice (AP) with “best practice” (BP) (dose/schedule/cycle number), for common adjuvant/curative regimens. Variation in the choice of chemotherapy regimen was also reviewed. Results: Cases were included if they started a new course of adjuvant/curative therapy after January 1, 2014, and completed their treatment before July 31, 2015 (17,341 cases). For all disease sites and facilities, AP was equal to BP in 34.6% of cases, AP BP in 7.8% (Table). Th...