Cancer Support Community’s Utilization Management Summit Spotlights Health Equity

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Cancer Support Community (CSC) convenes its 3rd Annual Utilization Management Summit this Tuesday, November 16 at 1 p.m. ET.

This year’s Summit focuses on health equity, and features a keynote address from Dr. Karen Winkfield, Executive Director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance, and recent appointee to the White House’s National Cancer Advisory Board.

 The Summit is the cornerstone event of the CSC’s Forum on Utilization Management, which was formed in 2019 to focus on the impact of utilization management practices, such as prior authorization, clinical pathways, and step therapy, on patient access and affordability to care. Bringing together more than 100 health care professionals, patient advocate organizations, and various stakeholders in the utilization management space, this year’s Summit will examine how utilization management practices can increase health disparities.

“The Utilization Management Summit is a part of CSC’s ongoing commitment to examining the healthcare system from every angle to identify factors that contribute to and widen existing health disparities,” said Phylicia L. Woods, Executive Director of the Cancer Support Community’s Cancer Policy Institute.

 Dr. Danielle Carnival, Senior Advisor to the Director at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, will also offer brief remarks at the Summit, which marks her first public engagement since being appointed to this post by President Biden.

Following remarks from Drs. Winkfield and Carnival, Eucharia Borden, Senior Director of Health Equity at CSC, will moderate a panel discussion with healthcare leaders:

• Adrienne Simmons, PharmD, MS, BCPS, AAHIVP, National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable -a program of HEP

• Gary Puckrein, PhD, National Minority Quality Forum

• Krista Nelson, LCSW, OSW-C, BCD, FAOSW, Association of Community Cancer Centers

 • Surya Singh, MD, Singh Healthcare Advisors, LLC

For more information and to register for the Summit, go to https://t.co/jEfP4hKdYO?amp=1

About the Cancer Support Community

As the largest professionally led nonprofit network of cancer support worldwide, the Cancer Support Community (CSC), including its Gilda’s Club affiliates, is dedicated to ensuring that all people impacted by cancer are empowered by knowledge, strengthened by action, and sustained by community. CSC achieves its mission through three areas: direct service delivery, research, and advocacy. The organization’s Institute for Excellence in Psychosocial Care includes an international network of affiliates that offer the highest quality social and emotional support for people impacted by cancer, as well as a community of support available online and over the phone. The Research and Training Institute conducts cutting-edge psychosocial, behavioral, and survivorship research. CSC furthers its focus on patient advocacy through its Cancer Policy Institute, informing public policy in Washington, D.C. and across the nation. For more information, please call the toll-free Cancer Support Helpline at 888-793- 9355, or visit www.CancerSupportCommunity.org.