Patients who have a cancer diagnosis and also struggle to find the financial means to pay for needed oncology services tend to have worse outcomes, according to the Association of Community Cancer Centers. Connecting the dots for those patients is the impetus behind the group's newly updated guidelines which are designed to aid programs in determining which patients may need this kind of assistance.
"Research shows how incredibly impactful — and effective — financial advocacy services are for patients. All patients deserve the right to access these services," stated Angie Santiago, chair of the ACCC's financial advocacy network, in a November news release. "ACCC and its partners see the Financial Advocacy Services Guidelines as a foundational step to improving our patients' ability to access these critical services and receive affordable, high-quality and comprehensive cancer care."
Cancer patients are also 2.7 times more likely to file for bankruptcy, according to the National Institutes of Health.
"The new guidelines note that it is imperative for clinicians to understand that with modern advancements in cancer care, high costs are often associated with those emerging technologies and solutions — which is beneficial for the field, but not for patients for whom those solutions are out of reach for.
"As we celebrate modern advances in anti-cancer treatment, such as precision medicine and managing advanced disease as a chronic condition, it is crucial to acknowledge the ever-increasing healthcare costs that come with these achievements," an introduction to the updated guide states.
A focus on aligning access to care with affordability is the focus of the revisions overall.