On February 26, ASTRO submitted a comment letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) urging the Agency to apply direct supervision requirements (not virtual supervision) to all radiation oncology services in all sites of service. In the letter, ASTRO recognized that for many procedures and services, virtual supervision is safe and often increases access to care. However, for more intensive procedures, like radiation therapy, virtual supervision jeopardizes patient safety and quality and provides little benefit in access to care.

In prior rulemaking, CMS stated that there is an “absence of evidence that patient safety is compromised by virtual direct supervision…,” but ASTRO disagrees and provided real-world clinical examples demonstrating the importance of the in-person radiation oncologist in providing radiation therapy. Certainly, there needs to be flexibility for situations such as participating in tumor boards, or to ensure that patients in rural areas have access to treatments, but direct supervision is the safest approach for high-quality radiation therapy, the letter said.

Read the letter for more information.