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Advocacy Spotlight: Kurt Tauer, MD, FACP
Medical Oncologist/Hematologist, West Cancer Center & Research Institute, Germantown, TN
When forming the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) 20 years ago, Kurt Tauer, MD, FACP, had one goal: ensure community oncology could continue providing high-quality, convenient care.
Facing major Medicare reforms that threatened the viability of community cancer clinics, Dr. Tauer and colleagues at the West Cancer Center & Research Institute—one of the earliest community oncology practices in the United States—founded the Community Oncology Alliance as a collective voice for independent, community-based cancer care.
“The Medicare Modernization Act wasn’t just going to cut our profits a bit—it was going to mean we’d have to close, and millions of patients would lose access to cancer care,” he said.
Dr. Tauer and the newly established Community Oncology Alliance arrived in Washington, D.C., finding that policymakers knew little about cancer care, let alone independent community oncology. By educating key policymakers on the dangers of proposed reforms, COA prevented the potentially devastating impact of the policy change—and cemented itself as the sole advocate for community oncology patients and practices.
Celebrating COA’s 20th anniversary at the 2023 Community Oncology Conference, Dr. Tauer offered a reminder of the organization’s founding principle. “Our patients need a voice,” Dr. Tauer explained. “COA has been, and always will be, a vehicle to make sure that voice is heard.”
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