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Hope begins here.

If you're an HR or benefits professional seeking cancer resources for your employees, or a consultant looking to provide best-in-class cancer support for your clients, share a few details below. We’ll reach out to help your company get started.

If you’re an employee looking for your AccessHope benefit, call 800.423.3232 and select Option 1.

A benefit that's there for employees when they need it most

Your employees deserve the best, and that starts with access to the latest knowledge.

Research shows that cancer outcomes are dramatically better at National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. But only 20% of cases are treated there.1,2 That’s why AccessHope connects your plan and your employees' community oncologists with NCI subspecialists, which can allow your employees to benefit from leading research, from the comfort of home.

We proudly partner with NCI centers to remotely deliver expertise to help employees and their families nationwide

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

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Johns Hopkins Medicine

Kimmel Cancer Center

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Northwestern Medicine

Northwestern Medicine

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UT Southwestern Medical Center

Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center

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cancer is complex - transparent

Cancer is complicated

There are hundreds of cancer types and variants, and optimal treatments can be radically different depending on factors like genetics and stage. AccessHope supports your plan, your employee, and their oncologist with expertise related to their specific case, to make a real, measurable, tangible difference.

costly-final

Cancer is costly

In addition to the financial strain it places on employees, cancer is now the top medical expense category for employers.3 AccessHope uses the latest knowledge to help reduce those expenses, while providing support for people with cancer and their families.
equality-final

Cancer doesn't treat all people equally

A troubling gap exists between cancer treatment and cancer outcomes based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and other characteristics.4 AccessHope can help narrow those gaps with support for your employees, no matter what their zip code or job level is.

Hear from an AccessHope member

I can personally vouch for AccessHope’s program as it gave me the peace of mind of knowing my treatment plan was correct. It’s a scary time and very confusing as one moment you’re totally healthy and the next you have a cancer diagnosis. AccessHope is the most impactful program and I realize it’s so helpful to make known these great solutions.

Pat Pitsch AccessHope Member

The proof is in the
(peer-reviewed) paper

Our subspecialists provided evidence-based recommendations that had the potential to influence the treatment plan in approximately 93% of cases.5

Download the study summary

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How are you different than other cancer support services?

AccessHope’s employer benefit gives employer self-funded plans and the treating physicians of employees remote access to renowned cancer expertise through foundational partnerships with NCI–Designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, allowing a 100% focus on cancer.

We bring advanced expert knowledge to advise on clinical aspects of a proposed treatment plan and provide evidence-based recommendations including personalized precision medicine opportunities, as well as appropriate clinical trial information and support services, regardless of an employee’s location.

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How is AccessHope different than Centers of Excellence (COE) services?

COE services provide medical care to cancer patients; AccessHope does not. AccessHope’s business model remotely connects (a) employees to cancer support services from expert oncology nurses and support staff via our Cancer Support Team; (b) employees’ community oncologists (via our Expert Advisory Review service) and benefit plans (via our Accountable Precision Oncology service) to the latest expertise from NCI–Designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, eliminating the need to travel for leading cancer expertise and leaving their care decisions 100% in the hands of their local treating physician. Our program supports all cancer types and stages along the member’s journey, while they stay close to home with their local support system.

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How are you different than second opinion or expert medical opinion (EMO) services?

Unlike EMO solutions that provide written case reports to members, AccessHope specialists deliver a detailed report on each unique cancer case to the member’s plan or their community oncologist and follow up with an offer of a peer-to-peer clinical consultation call to discuss the evidenced-based recommendations. AccessHope is focused solely on supporting cancer cases with the latest knowledge from NCI centers to help improve quality of life and health outcomes for more people with cancer.

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How does AccessHope work in practice? What exactly do you do?

AccessHope offers remote cancer support services to employers nationwide – Accountable Precision Oncology, Expert Advisory Review and Cancer Support Team.

AccessHope connects employees to expertise from NCI–Designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers—to provide unparalleled decision support to cancer patients’ treating physicians and health plans throughout the cancer journey.

Learn more about our suite of services.

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Are community oncologists willing to collaborate with your subspecialists?

Yes. In more than 90% of cases, AccessHope experts offer recommendations which, if adopted by community oncologists, have the potential to influence meaningful and actionable changes to the recommended treatment plan.

In fact, our innovative model of remote expert case reviews was recently validated by a peer-reviewed study in the medical journal JCO Oncology Practice.

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How do you provide expertise to employees with cancer? Do they need to travel?

AccessHope services do not require members to travel, but instead provide remote access to leading-edge insights.

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How difficult would it be for me to implement AccessHope at my organization?

To implement our member-initiated Expert Advisory Review and Cancer Support Team services, AccessHope requires an eligibility file sent weekly from your organization. Our Implementation team will work with you to develop cohesive workflows to streamline this process.

You can send an inquiry now to get started.

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How do you handle member privacy?

AccessHope values members’ privacy. All employee information is transmitted, used and stored securely, according to applicable HIPAA guidelines.

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How is AccessHope addressing cancer health disparities?

While science continues to evolve, disparities in healthcare based on race and geography persist. AccessHope’s remote approach to Expert Advisory Review and Accountable Precision Oncology services addresses disparities by providing access to NCI expertise regardless of the employee’s geographic location. Highly specialized hospitals like NCI centers have been shown in a study to have higher survival rates over 5 years versus community hospitals.1

As an organization, AccessHope also administers diversity, equity, and inclusion training for their physician, clinical and research teams on empathy, authentic communication, unconscious bias and other related topics.

Reference

1 Pfister DG, Rubin DM, Elkin EB, et al. Risk adjusting survival outcomes in hospitals that treat patients with cancer without information on cancer stage. JAMA Oncol. 2015;1(9)1303-1310.

Our leaders

Meet the people who are transforming the way we fight cancer

Brad
Kreick

Chief Executive Officer

As CEO, Brad drives the overall executive management and direction of AccessHope. His prior roles include CEO of SolutionHealth, Executive Vice President of Apria Healthcare Inc., Executive Vice President, Business Development, for Oxford Health Plans Inc., in addition to consulting experience taking publicly traded and privately held healthcare provider and payor organizations through high-growth stages.

Debra
Morris

Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer

Debby leads day-to-day operations including operational excellence, resource management, financial strategy, and cross-functional collaboration in support of AccessHope’s vision and culture. She brings over 30 years of experience scaling private and public companies and leading teams through periods of high growth, change, and complexity, most recently as CFO and EVP at Apria Healthcare for nearly 10 years.

Mark
Stadler

Chief Growth Officer

Mark drives the growth and expansion of AccessHope services while fostering client relationships. He joined AccessHope in 2020. His prior leadership experience includes successes with BridgeHealth, HealthSmart Holdings, Inc., Aon Hewitt, Great-West Healthcare, UnitedHealthcare and more.

Todd
Sachs, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Todd Sachs leads AccessHope’s clinical team and oversees the remote delivery of our cancer support services. Passionate about addressing healthcare disparities and promoting value-based care, Todd is deeply dedicated to staying in the know on the newest protocols and medications in the always-advancing field of oncology.

 

Board certified by the American Board of Surgery and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Todd specializes in endocrine surgery of the thyroid and parathyroid glands. He also belongs to the California Medical Association and Los Angeles Surgical Society.

Abhishek
Kumar

Chief Information Officer

Abhishek is responsible for the management, strategy and operations of IT infrastructure and oversees the IT Strategy and Information Security Program. His experience includes success with Johns Hopkins, City Of Hope and Johnson & Johnson.

Bridget
Davis

General Counsel

Bridget oversees legal, risk and compliance at AccessHope. She brings more than 35 years experience in legal practice. Most recently Bridget served as Deputy General Counsel at City of Hope, where she was instrumental in navigating complex legal challenges and fostering an environment of innovation and compliance.

Joseph
Alvarnas, M.D.

Chief Clinical Advisor | AccessHope; VP, Government Affairs and Senior Medical Director for Employer Strategy, Clinical Professor, Hematology/HCT | City of Hope

Dr. Alvarnas is AccessHope’s Chief Clinical Advisor with a passion for changing the healthcare system to ensure the delivery of first-class cancer care. He’s also a Clinical Professor of Hematologythe Vice President of Government Affairs, and the Senior Medical Director for Employer Strategy at City of Hope, a world-renowned independent cancer research and treatment center. For the center, he leads advocacy efforts at the federal, state, and local levels, and assists in developing, marketing, and operationalizing the clinical infrastructure and activities related to employer and payer strategies. 

Melissa
Gilkerson

Vice President, Marketing & Communications

Melissa drives the AccessHope brand and marketing strategy and oversees member engagement. Her 20 years of experience include successive leadership roles with StayWell as well as positions with Willis Towers Watson and RBC Capital Markets.

Cory
Morin

Vice President, Foundational Partners

Cory is the VP of Foundational Partners for AccessHope. He brings 17 years of project/program management and leadership experience in the healthcare industry to his role.

Get started with AccessHope today

AccessHope’s team of specialists is ready to help plan the best suite of cancer support services for your employees.

Get started

References:

1 National Cancer Institute. Data table 3: Reportable patients/participation in therapeutic studies. National Institute of Health Web site. https://cancercenters.cancer.gov/DT/DT3. Accessed June 4, 2021.

2 American Cancer Society. https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2020/cancer-facts-and-figures-2020.pdf. Accessed September 8, 2022.

3 Business Group on Health. 2023 Large Employers’ Health Care Strategy and Plan Design Survey. August 2022. Available at: https://www.businessgrouphealth.org/ resources/2023-large-employers-health-care-strategy-survey-intro

4 American Association for Cancer Research. AACR Cancer Disparities Progress Report 2020. https://cancerprogressreport.aacr.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/AACR_CDPR_2020.pdf. Published 2020. Accessed October 6, 2020.

5 West HJ, Tan YA, Barzi A, Wong D, Parsley R, Sachs T. Novel program offering remote, asynchronous subspecialist input in thoracic oncology: Early experience and insights gained during the COVID-19 pandemic [published online ahead of print December 3, 2021]. JCO Oncology Practice. doi:10.1200/OP.21.00339

UT Southwestern Medical Center Partners with AccessHope to extend nationwide access to cancer expertise 

Read the Press Release