Not understanding terms like deductible, copay, premium, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximum prevents many Americans from selecting a health insurance plan that meets their financial needs. Fewer than 40% of patients enrolled in high-deductible healthcare plans engage in effective financial behaviors, such as comparing prices or discussing costs with clinicians. High costs are a barrier for many patients and survivors to access high-quality cancer and survivorship care.
On September 8, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported that cancers, including squamous cell carcinoma and various lymphomas, may develop in the capsule that forms around breast implants.
In a key step that would expand Medicare coverage for necessary lymphedema compression treatment items, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Lymphedema Treatment Act in July 2022, advancing the bill’s journey to becoming law.
Although they’ve conquered cancer, survivors may develop late or long-term physical, psychosocial, practical, or spiritual effects from the disease or its treatment. For example, patients with breast cancer who have completed surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy should be monitored for recurrence, lymphedema, osteoporosis, and cardiac, hormone-related, and sexual issues.
Pending legislation would help residents save on prescription drug costs by empowering Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, capping out-of-pocket costs, and limiting pharmaceutical price increases to the rate of inflation, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) said during a discussion with a plethora of healthcare professionals, including ONS member Heather Murphy, MSN, FNP, OCN®, president of the ONS Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts Chapter, about rising prescription drug prices at a Rhode Island conference in July 2022.
With care shifting to outpatient delivery and the increased availability of evidence-based support services, cancer care and survivor support has greatly evolved during the past 25 years, according to ONS member Carlin Callaway, DNP, MS, RN, ACNP-BC, ACNS-BC, AOCNP®, assistant professor and lead medical oncology advanced practice provider at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and member of the ONS Metro Denver Chapter, in a June 2022 public-facing blog post for the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Cancer.Net website.
On September 2, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved durvalumab (Imfinzi®) in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic biliary tract cancer.
To support the objectives of President Joe Biden’s relaunched Cancer Moonshot initiative, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded $215 million to three national cancer programs in June 2022. The funds are part of a $1.1 billion investment in cancer prevention and control.
The clinical trials that lead to new drug approvals or expanded indications are quick to praise a therapy’s clinical benefits, such as longer survival or time to progression, but only about one in five of those trials find improvements in patients’ quality of life, researchers reported in JAMA Oncology.
Coordinating survivorship care plans is an integral part of cancer care. When the Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Network experienced challenges in implementing survivorship care plans, it created a brand-new medical role—survivorship data coordinator—to “initiate case findings for eligible patients, track patients completing treatment, notify physicians and advanced practice providers to populate the survivorship care plan, and schedule survivorship care plan appointments.”