Insurance Long-Term Planning
How will cancer treatment impact my finances and money?
I think when it comes to finances and cancer, this is a topic that has been getting a lot of attention in the lay press, in the newspapers and specifically in the Wall Street Journal, recently with regards to pharmaceutical companies charging exorbitant amounts of money for their particular medications and the biggest response from the pharmaceutical companies is that it cost $800 Billion to investigate a drug from the first investigation to an FDA approval, and they need to make up their money somehow. To some degree, I agree that it is very expensive to come up with a new drug and if it is going to help my patients, I don't care how much a company has to spend, I want my patients to get that drug. Now from a patient to patient basis, it doesn't bother me, I want my patients getting the best drug no matter how much their insurance company has to spend but ultimately patients have to pay a portion of that cost themselves, no matter what insurance they have. Whether they have an HMO, whether they have a PPO, whether they are on Medicare, they will have to pay some type of co-payment and that could severely impact their lives.
Will my insurance pay for specialized cancer treatment?
Everyone needs to look back at their policy and see if this is a covered provision or not. For the most part, cancer-related therapies, chemotherapy and treatment for cancer is covered. Bone marrow transplantation usually is covered. It just depends where it gets covered and where the treatment is done. I have been to a lot of institutions in which certain institutions are contracted by particular insurance companies to provide their care but most insurance companies would cover most cancer therapeutics. When it comes to experimental therapies that is a completely different question and I think that depends on the different payers, different insurance companies. Certain insurance companies see experimental therapies as out of the standard of care for particular cancers and they would not cover that and in those situations, most pharmaceutical-sponsored clinical trials provide the drug for free. The bigger issues are related to professional fees from physicians that are participating in this clinical trial and may or may not be covered by your insurance.
