“Is the doctor going to give you what might be a lesser treatment, because he thinks you are worried about money? Is it appropriate to ask the busy doctor about costs?”
Questions like these are running through many patients’ minds, says CancerCare Executive Director Diane Blum, MSW, despite many physicians’ believing that their patients are not worried about cost.
Yet, how they will be able to pay for insurance co-payments, medications and transportation to outpatient services are among the financial worries of many cancer patients, notes Blum, who is quoted in the July/August 2009 issue of Oncology Nursing News, in the article, “Costs of Care Now Part of Care Discussion.”
Blum, who chairs the Patient Resources Subcommittee of the ASCO Cost of Cancer Care Task Force, urged doctors to address the costs of treatment with their patients during a panel discussion at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual conference, held this past June in Orlando, Fla. She also covered a variety of financial assistance programs available for people undergoing cancer treatment including CancerCare‘s Co-Payment Assistance Foundation and the Cancer Financial Assistance Coalition, a group of 12 organizations that provide financial support.
“We cannot pay [all of] the bills,” says Blum, “but we can…get you to the resources most appropriate to your need.”
