A Patient Advocate can help with all aspects of cancer care and treatment. Here are some of the many ways a Patient Advocate can help with your cancer journey.
1. Find a second opinion: A Patient Advocate can find a great doctor, make the appointment, verify your insurance, and even attend appointments, asking questions and explaining afterward. Getting a second opinion is vital before starting treatment for cancer.
2. Find treatment options: A Patient Advocate can provide education and resources for treatment options, including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and other types of targeted therapies. There are also clinical trials and expanded access programs that can be life-saving and worthwhile. A Patient Advocate can make sure that your health insurance is covering everything they should.
3. Find genetic testing: A Patient Advocate can locate genetic testing for your type of cancer and make an appointment with a genetic counselor to explain the results, helping you understand your cancer and how to fight it with the latest research.
4. Find holistic/alternative treatments: A Patient Advocate can help with your emotional and physical health by finding alternative treatments like acupuncture and other therapies that may help deal with your cancer treatments, even helping to find insurance coverage for some alternative therapies.
5. Find compassionate use drugs: A Patient Advocate can research drug therapies that may not be FDA-approved if you do not qualify for clinical trials. The Advocate can help you with contacting drug companies and work with your doctor to find a way to beat your cancer by unconventional methods, even contacting your health insurance for ways they can cover different aspects of treatment.
6. Find financial assistance: A Patient Advocate can research ways to get you help with the financial burden of cancer treatment, keeping you as financially stable as possible. There are many charities that can help with treatment-related expenses, insurance copays and coinsurance, housekeeping, companionship, groceries, lodging, airline miles, medical supplies, food, child care, living expenses, legal assistance for insurance issues, MRIs, beauty items, pillows, wigs/turbans/scarves for hair loss, gas cards for travel, prostheses, and more.
A Patient Advocate can help with all aspects of cancer treatment and care. Cancer treatment is inherently overwhelming and having someone there to navigate it can ease the burden, both emotionally and financially.
A Patient Navigator is ap erson who helps guide a patient through the healthcare system. This includes help going through the screening, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of a medical condition, such as cancer. A patient navigator helps patients communicate with their healthcare providers so they get the information they need to make decisions about their health care. Patient navigators may also help patients set up appointments for doctor visits and medical tests and get financial, legal, and social support. They may also work with insurance companies, employers, case managers, lawyers, and others who may have an effect on a patient’s healthcare needs.
Patient navigation is an intervention that can help increase treatment adherence and improve health outcomes for cancer patients. Cancer patients and their caregivers often experience barriers to timely, high-quality cancer treatment. These barriers can include lack of experience with the healthcare system, inadequate health insurance, and challenges with day-to-day activities such as transportation to treatment and taking time off from work. Patient navigators can help reduce disparities in cancer care, increase patient satisfaction, and improve health outcomes. This paper describes the benefits of patient navigation with a focus on the value of the nonclinical patient navigator and will also highlight the evidence base for patient navigation as an effective intervention in the clinical setting.
The Benefits of Patient Navigation
Coping with cancer is an immense and complicated burden for cancer patients and their loved ones. When someone hears the words, “You have cancer,” the most imminent need is information—about the specific diagnosis, the treatment options, treatment side effects, available resources, insurance coverage, and so much more. The complexity of the cancer care journey, coupled with the life-threatening nature of cancer and its emotional repercussions, makes it difficult for people with cancer to make decisions about their care. Whereas information can offer hope and serve as a very empowering tool for newly diagnosed cancer patients, they and their families are often overwhelmed by the avalanche of materials, resources, forms, procedures, and complex medical information they receive in the days and weeks after the initial diagnosis.
While some newly diagnosed patients may feel overwhelmed with information, others may feel that they haven’t received enough clear or adequate information about treatment plans, options, and resources available to them. In addition, patients may experience barriers that impede or even prevent them from accessing the resources, treatment, and care they need. These barriers can include, but are not limited too, insufficient health insurance, transportation, geographic isolation, lodging expenses associated with out-of-town treatment, communication, and lack of understanding of or experience with the healthcare system. These barriers may be particularly evident among patients from underserved communities, such as low-income groups or racial or ethnic minorities.
In today’s often overwhelmed healthcare system, patient barriers frequently go unaddressed.1Many patients don’t understand their cancer diagnosis or treatment plan. There may be additional stressors, such as having to take time off from work, the need for childcare, and the costs of treatment. Without answers or resources to help, some patients just give up.
Patient navigation is one strategy to help address barriers to accessing timely, high-quality cancer care. We know that patient navigation is an effective intervention not only to help increase cancer screening rates but also to help cancer patients navigate the healthcare system. In recent years, 2 types of navigation have emerged—clinical navigation and nonclinical patient navigation. This article will focus on the nonclinical patient navigation role. The nonclinical navigator is a trained professional who provides individualized assistance to patients, families, and caregivers to help overcome barriers to timely access to quality cancer care.
Leave a Reply