EP296: Oncology FAQs About Telehealth, Standardizing Care, and Drug Prices, With Vincent Rajkumar, MD, of Mayo Clinic, Rochester

In Episode 296, Stacey Richter talks with Vincent Rajkumar, MD, professor of medicine and practicing hematologist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, about oncology FAQs covering telehealth, standardizing care, and drug prices.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ How telehealth is reshaping oncology visits, and where it still falls short

✅ Why standardizing treatment pathways could help community oncologists keep pace with increasingly complex cancer care

✅ Why treatment pathways should be built by people without a financial stake in the outcome

✅ Why Dr. Rajkumar argues there are "no allies" in the fight for lower prescription drug costs

✅ Why cancer drugs behave like monopolies rather than products in a free market

WHY THIS MATTERS

Dr. Vincent Rajkumar, a leading voice on drug pricing and multiple myeloma treatment, walks through why cancer care has become so complex that community oncologists need standardized, conflict-free pathways to keep up, and why telehealth has a real but limited role to play in that complexity. He's especially blunt about drug pricing: unlike a car or a television, a cancer drug isn't something a patient can decide to live without, and when each drug functions as its own monopoly, normal market forces simply don't apply. Value-based pricing, he argues, isn't about putting a price on a life — it's about putting a price on what a drug is actually worth.

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

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00:00 Introduction.

01:45 What is the perspective on telehealth and its impact on oncology?

03:50 "Cancer has become extraordinarily complex."

05:32 Is it possible to still have community oncologists in the advent of technology?

08:39 What's the viability for flat-fee reimbursement in oncology?

14:31 "The pathways should be designed and developed by people who don't have a financial stake [or] conflict."

18:34 "Part of the problem for physicians is, you want to deliver the best care."

21:23 "There are no allies in this fight for lower prescription drug costs."

23:18 "This is not like a television or a car where you can say you can live without it."

24:33 "It's absolutely not a free market."

25:35 "Each drug is a monopoly."

30:22 "When you do value-based pricing, you're not putting a price on anybody's life. You're only putting a price on what [a] drug is worth."