The Policy Task Group is dedicated to enhancing patient access to care by addressing policies at all levels that could impact the profession and the patients served by oncology navigators. Specifically, the Task Group is committed to identifying, supporting, and advocating for policies which provide permanent and sustainable funding streams to pay for evidenced-based patient navigation services across the continuum of cancer care, beginning with the preventive screening and early detection, and extending through diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and end-of-life.

The Task Group created various papers, including Patient Navigation in Cancer Care: Review of Payment Models for a Sustainable Future Briefing Paper

Policy task group leaders published a peer-reviewed manuscript for a special supplement of the journal Cancer focused on the programmatic factors association with the sustainability of navigation programs. Cancer Supplement  Using NNRT survey data , the authors found associations between both accreditation and work setting and measures of program sustainability. Accredited programs and larger, more resourced clinical institutions were particularly likely to exhibit multiple measures of sustainability. Study results also found significant gaps at the programmatic level in data collection and reporting among navigation programs. using the NNRT’s survey data, which found associations between both accreditation and work setting and measures of program sustainability. The study found that accredited programs and larger, more resourced clinical institutions were particularly likely to exhibit multiple measures of sustainability, as well as significant gaps at the programmatic level in data collection and reporting among navigation programs.

In 2023, this group assisted ACS CAN in developing a consensus letter in response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) 2024 Proposed Physician Fee Schedule Regulations regarding reimbursement for Principal Illness Navigation (PIN) services.

The 2024 goals of the policy task force are to provide implementation support for the reimbursement codes created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to support principal illness navigation. The task force will also continue to partner with the Professional Oncology Navigation Task Force to utilize the Oncology Navigation Standards of Professional Practice in reimbursement advocacy efforts and to collaborate with ACS Cancer Action Network to educate state and federal legislators on the effectiveness of Patient Navigation.