By Erich Mounce:
Each of us has been touched by cancer. The toll on a patient or family member’s quality of life is tremendous, given complex treatment plans, site of service confusion, fragmented care coordination, and skyrocketing costs. The burden falls not only on patients and families, but also on the payers responsible for financing an increasingly unsustainable cancer spend.
At Jasper Health, we’re focused on alleviating these burdens and improving outcomes for patients and payers alike.
Jasper Health transforms the cancer care experience through personalized navigation, psychosocial support, and care management for patients, caregivers, and payers. Through an intuitive digital platform and one-to-one, expert-led counseling, Jasper empowers patients to manage treatment plans, track symptoms, and access support--all in one place.
We’ve built the most comprehensive and scalable patient-centered oncology experience—from suspicion of cancer through survivorship or end-of-life care.
How Jasper Health Delivers Measurable Value for Payers
In the U.S., cancer care accounts for a substantial and rapidly growing share of national health expenditures. Rising incidence and high-cost therapies make oncology one of the most challenging categories for risk-bearing primary care groups and health plans. Yet, there are meaningful inflection points across the cancer continuum where a better experience can also lower costs.
Built for seamless partnership with providers and health plans, Jasper reduces administrative and care management burden while improving outcomes and lowering total cancer spend. Our navigation and clinical care management solution helps risk-bearing groups drive ROI in four key areas:
1. Improve Patient Satisfaction and Quality of Life
Through Jasper Health’s whole-person approach, risk-bearing entities can drive member satisfaction, engagement, and retention. In a recent pilot:
- 68% of members reported lower stress and anxiety
- 78% reported better medication adherence
- 93% found it easier to track and manage care
By empowering confident, active patients, Jasper drove a net promoter score consistently around 100, helping health plans to support quality and value-based care metrics, including Medicare Advantage Star ratings.
2. Reduce Avoidable ED and Hospital Utilization
Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy average two ED visits a year, and 44% of all cancer patients have at least one ED visit in the first year following diagnosis. They are more likely to be admitted and tend to stay 1.5 days longer than non-cancer patients, driving over $32,000 per cancer patient per year in ED and hospital costs.
With proactive symptom management, treatment adherence, and care coordination, much of this spend is avoidable. Jasper Health provides human-led and tech-enabled patient navigation, psychosocial support, and nurse-led symptom management to help cancer patients stay out of the ED and hospital. Based on established literature and our model, Jasper is conservatively estimated to reduce ED visits and hospitalizations by 30% for cancer patients.
Notably, 91% of our patients say they would consult their Jasper Health counselor before visiting the ED. That trust enables us to redirect patients to more cost-effective symptom management and appropriate sites of care. Through reduced utilization, payers and primary care organizations can realize gross savings of approximately $9,620 per patient per year.
3. Optimize Drug Costs Through Clinical Care Pathways
In partnership with risk-bearing entities, Jasper Health partners with high-value medical oncologists to reduce Part B spend. Our proprietary clinical care pathways, grounded in NCCN guidelines, ensure patients receive high-value care—from diagnostics and imaging to chemotherapy, supportive drugs, and follow-up care.
When oncologists follow these pathways, drug spend alone can be reduced by 10–25%, or roughly $5,000–$10,000 in savings per patient per year, depending on tumor type, stage, and other clinical factors.
4. Steer Patients to Appropriate, Lower-Cost Sites of Care
By engaging patients early in their cancer journey, Jasper can guide them to the most clinically appropriate, cost-effective site of care. Most patients can then—and often prefer to—receive chemotherapy and radiation close to home in their community.
Infusions delivered in hospital outpatient departments are often 30–50% more expensive than the same drugs delivered in physician offices. On a per-patient basis, steering to lower-cost sites of care can save $10,000–$25,000 per year, depending on regimen, frequency, and duration.
Closing the Cancer Care Gap—for Patients and Payers
Jasper Health delivers meaningful ROI while supporting high-quality cancer care. Our partners see impact not only in avoided ED and hospital admissions, but also in smarter site-of-care decisions, drug optimization, and deep patient engagement.
By surrounding patients with proactive, personalized support, we also enable payers and risk-bearing organizations to manage oncology costs. We hope to support as many patients through as much of their journey as possible, improving quality of life and clinical outcomes while bending the cost curve in cancer care.
Sources:
Kolodziej M, Hoverman JR, Garey JS, et al. Benchmarks for Value in Cancer Care: An Analysis of a Large Commercial Population. J Oncol Pract. 2011; 7(5):301-306. https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JOP.2011.000394
American Cancer Society. Cancer Treatment & Survivorship Facts & Figures 2022-2024. Atlanta: American Cancer Society; 2022
Lash RS, Hong AS, Bell JF, et al. Recognizing the emergency department’s role in oncologic care: areview of the literature on unplanned acute care. Emerg Cancer Care. 2022; 1(6). https://emergcancercare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s44201-022-00007-4
Patel MI, Ramirez D, Agajanian R, et al. Lay Health Worker-Led Cancer Symptom Screening Intervention and the Effect on Patient-Reported Satisfaction, Health Status, Health Care Use, and Total Costs: Results From a Tri-Part Collaboration. JCO Oncol Pract. 2020; 16(1):e19-e28.
Commercial Insurer Spending on Chemotherapy Lower in Physician Offices Versus HOPDs Price Differences To Insurers For Infused Cancer Drugs In Hospital Outpatient Departments And Physician Offices | Health Affairs
More about Erich:
Erich Mounce is Chief Executive Officer of Jasper Health, where he leads the company’s mission to transform the cancer care experience through a comprehensive platform that supports patients from diagnosis through survivorship.
With more than 40 years in healthcare, including 15 years in oncology, Erich has built and scaled innovative care delivery organizations. Prior to Jasper Health, he served as CEO of Oncology Care Partners, a community oncology network, and as the founding Chief Operating Officer of OneOncology, a national, private equity-backed practice platform. He has also held CEO roles at UT West Cancer Center and Envision Hospital Corporation.
Erich began his healthcare career with the Los Angeles City Fire Department, where he proudly served as a fire paramedic for 10 years.
