Addressing Financial Toxicity With Navigators and Better Conversations Around Decision Making

Published: June 5, 2018, 1:39 p.m.

Health literacy in the United States is low to begin with, and health financial literacy is even lower. The changing health insurance system is partly to blame. A few decades ago, health insurance covered everything. Now, patients have a lot more financial responsibility, and they don\u2019t always understand it. In cancer, health financial literacy is particularly important since treatment can be so costly.\n\nThis episode of Managed Care Cast includes conversations with a few experts in the field:\xa0Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, of the Duke Cancer Institute;\xa0Clara Lambert, BBA, OPN-CG, chair of the Association of Community Cancer Centers Financial Advocacy Network Advisory Committee;\xa0Todd Yezefski, MD, senior fellow in the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington; and\xa0Michele McCourt, senior director of the CancerCare Co-Payment Assistance Foundation.\n\nRead more:\nA Descriptive Study of Patients Receiving Foundational Financial Assistance Through Local Specialty Pharmacies: www.ajmc.com/journals/supplement/2018/the-patient-assistance-safety-net-how-many-need-help-how-many-are-helped/a-descriptive-study-of-patients-receiving-foundational-financial-assistance-through-local-specialty-pharmacies\nImpact of Trained Oncology Financial Navigators on Patient Out-of-Pocket Spending: www.ajmc.com/journals/supplement/2018/the-patient-assistance-safety-net-how-many-need-help-how-many-are-helped/impact-of-trained-oncology-financial-navigators-on-patient-outofpocket-spending\nPolicy Improvement Areas to Reduce Financial Hardship: www.ajmc.com/conferences/pan-2018/policy-improvement-areas-to-reduce-financial-hardship\nAddressing Financial Concerns at the Outset to Improve Patient Outcomes: www.ajmc.com/conferences/pan-2018/addressing-financial-concerns-at-the-outset-to-improve-patient-outcomes