Cancer Survivors Who Cut Costs...
June 21, 2010
I’ve been thinking about an article I read last week, and I’ve been trying to decide how I want to write about it. The article (the information presented in it really) describes a central challenge of survivorship – and the problem is not directly medical. Here is the news article’s headline:
Cost-Conscious Cancer Survivors Skip Care: Research suggests millions are going without needed medical services
I hope the title speaks for itself. It describes a study published in the journal Cancer that found that millions of the 12 million American cancer survivors are skipping basic medical care citing medical costs as the chief concern.
The study’s lead author put it very well when she was interviewed by HealthDay, "I think it's concerning because we recognize that cancer survivors have many medical needs that persist for years after their diagnosis and treatment,"- study lead author Kathryn E. Weaver, an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences & Health Policy at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Follow-up cancer care is incredibly important. The most obvious point of importance is screening for second cancers or recurrence. Follow-up care is where that screening happens. Follow-up care also includes screening for and prevention of many other outcomes for which cancer survivors are at higher risk.
In CT, survivors have many free opportunities to learn about the importance of survivorship care and many places to learn about pieces integral to successful survivorship. Survivors can learn about survivorship events by clicking here. And survivors can learn about our partners in the CT Challenge Survivorship Network by clicking here.
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