Health care costs and the concerns by both patients and physicians alike are becoming more commonplace as more information comes out about the expense of services, including pharmaceuticals.
With new cancer drugs priced as high as $10,000 a month and more, and insurers tightening payment rules, patients who thought they were well covered increasingly find themselves having to make life-altering decisions about what they can afford. As a result, cancer doctors trained to weigh side effects and efficacy are being regularly pulled into delicate discussions on cost, an issue that will be explored at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago through June 3.
In one example in this article, a doctor states that if he had asked one simple question, he could have saved his patients not only thousands of dollars, but the distress of such a financial burden when already fighting a threatening disease.