Peter B. Bach is a physician and writer in Cambridge, MA. He is the chief medical officer of DELFI Diagnostics and was previously an attending physician and researcher at
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a oncology, cancer treatment and research institution in Manhattan in New York City. MSKCC is one of 72 National Cancer Institute–NCI-designated Cancer Center, designated Comprehen ...
where he was the Director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes. His research focuses on healthcare policy, particularly as it relates to
Medicare,
racial disparities in cancer care quality, and
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...
. Along with his scientific writings, he is a frequent contributor to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' and other newspapers.
Education
Bach earned a bachelor's degree in English and American Literature from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
(1986), a MD from the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
(1992) and a Masters of Arts in Public Policy (1997) from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. He obtained his internal medicine training at
Johns Hopkins Hospital
Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1889, Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the foundin ...
, and completed a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Career
In 2021 Bach joined DELFI Diagnostics, a liquid biopsy cancer screening company, as its chief medical officer in 2021.
Health policy achievements
Cancer drug prices
Beginning in 2009, Bach and his team published and reported on multiple technical attributes of the US pharmaceutical market that raised awareness and ultimately led to changes in how Medicare paid for drugs for its beneficiaries. The work in cluded, in 2009, the first comprehensive description of how Medicare paid for cancer drugs documenting inflationary policies published in the New England Journal of Medicine
Leading, in 2012, an opinion article describing why the hospital where he worked (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center) was rejecting a drug
altrapdue to its high price in 2012 - a move led the company to lower the drug's price, and to widespread coverage including a cover story in New York Magazine and a segment on "60 Minutes". Releasing the DrugAbacus, billed as an interactive tool that users can apply to model prices for cancer drugs based on a number of factors, including clinical efficacy, safety and toxicity, the value placed on a year of life, and the value of innovation in 2016. The tool demonstrated that there was no formula that could be used to 'solve' or explain current pricing for drugs.
Excess cost of wasted drugs
In 2016, Bach led a team that described how pharmaceutical companies were packaging drugs in oversized single use vials, thus earning billions in excesss revenue on drug that was never used in the treatment of patients. The study led to an investigation by the HHS OIG, then to a pilot modification of billing codes for physician administered drugs then made permanent, a National Academy of Medicine report analyzing solutions to the problem, and a provision (Section 90004) of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that clawed back excess revenues earned from the practice. Avalere estimated that 2023 clawback alone for discarded drugs would equal $210Million.
Hepatitis C treatment 'Netflix' model
Bach and his colleague Mark Trusheim described an alternative payment approach for highly effective Hepatitis C treatments where states would pay a flat fee 'subscription' to the drug company in exchange for unlimited supply of treatment, a design focused on providing predictable revenue to the company and adequate supply to eliminate the disease. The approach was successfully implemented in Louisiana by Secretary Rebekah Gee, and has been proposed for national implementation.
Other areas
Bach has also worked on areas related to racial disparities within the provision of cancer care. Along with research collaborators, he has published evidence that black Medicare beneficiaries with lung cancer do not receive as high quality care as white patients. A paper in 2007 demonstrated that care in Medicare is highly fragmented, with the average beneficiary seeing multiple primary care physicians and specialists. He has worked on developing
lung cancer screening guidelines also developed a lung cancer risk prediction model. He has proposed a number of strategies by which Medicare could link payment level to the value of healthcare delivered.
Other writings
His lay press contributions have included op-eds on topics such as medical school tuition funding, setting physician reimbursement based on market forces, and why cancer screening recommendations are often not followed.
Personal life
Bach chronicled his wife Ruth’s treatment for early breast cancer in a series of articles of blog posts for the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'',
and then wrote about her death in 2012 from the disease in a piece for
New York Magazine
''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City.
Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...
. Bach discussed the article on
Leonard Lopate's former show on
WNYC
WNYC is an audio service brand, under the control of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization. Radio and other audio programming is primarily provided by a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations: WNYC (AM) and WNYC- ...
. Bach married the writer Bianca Turetsky in 2021.
Other positions
* The
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer ...
(Senior Advisor to the Administrator: 2005-2006)
* National Cancer Policy Forum of the
Institute of Medicine
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...
(Member: 2005-current)
* Working group on HIT for the
President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) (2009-2011)
* Institute of Medicine Committee on Geographic Variation in Healthcare Spending (Member: 2010-current)
*
The World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Health Technology (2012-current)
Peter Bach
''World Economic Forum'' (accessed 11/9/2012)
References
External links
Profile at ''Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center'' Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Open Mind TV Show, ''PBS'', 4/12/21. Interview with Richard Heffner, "Do We "Waste" Money on Terminal Patients?"
Open Mind TV Show, ''PBS'', 4/12/28. Interview with Richard Heffner, "Do We "Waste" Money on Terminal Patients?" (part 2)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bach, Peter
1964 births
Living people
American medical researchers
Cancer researchers
Harvard College alumni
University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy alumni
University of Minnesota Medical School alumni
Members of the National Academy of Medicine