Screen every patient for financial hardship at diagnosis and connect them to help
Cancer often ruins families financially, and money worries make people skip treatment. Ask about finances at the first visit, as routinely as asking about allergies, and route people to assistance.
Financial toxicity is common, predicts non-adherence and worse outcomes, and is rarely assessed. Validated brief instruments (such as the COST measure) can be added to intake, with positive screens triggering referral to financial navigators, charity programmes, and benefit advice. This is cheap and addresses a cause of care fragmentation and abandonment in every health system, insured or not.
- Fragmented care and guideline gaps · Patients fall between specialists, wait for referrals and often do not get the treatment guidelines say they should.
- Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency · Most patients cannot understand their options, find trials, or push back, so decisions are made for them.
- Prices and value · New cancer drugs routinely cost over $150,000 a year, often for months of benefit. Systems cannot afford them and patients go bankrupt.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaPatient navigation as a legal entitlement from the day of diagnosis
Shares Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency, Fragmented care and guideline gaps.
- IdeaScreen every patient for financial toxicity at diagnosis and refer like any other symptom
Shares Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency, Prices and value.
- IdeaBundled episode payments for cancer care with bonuses for guideline concordance
Shares Fragmented care and guideline gaps, Prices and value.
- IdeaDecision aids built into the record for every preference-sensitive cancer choice
Shares Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency, Fragmented care and guideline gaps.
- IdeaA defined pathway for patients with both dementia and cancer
Shares Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency, Fragmented care and guideline gaps.
- IdeaA dedicated clinic for people whose blood test says the cancer is back
Shares Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency, Fragmented care and guideline gaps.
- InstitutionNational Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)
Shares Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency, Fragmented care and guideline gaps, Prices and value.
- Key paperBasch: asking patients to report symptoms online during chemotherapy improved survival
Shares Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency, Fragmented care and guideline gaps.