Health Insurance, Financial Issues are Primary Legal Barriers for Cancer Patients

The most common legal barriers cancer patients face are related to health insurance, financial issues, and disability, according to a study presented at the 2023 ASCO Quality Care Symposium.

For this study, researchers analyzed data from the Triage Cancer Legal & Financial Navigation Program’s de-identified electronic database.

Triage Cancer is a national, nonprofit organization that offers a hotline where patients, caregivers, and providers can call to receive free guidance and education on legal issues related to cancer care.  

From 2021 to 2023, there were 3239 callers. Most (66%) were cancer patients, but 17% were caregivers, 13% were health care providers, and 4% were classified as “other.”

Cancer diagnoses included solid tumors (80%) and hematologic malignancies (20%), with breast cancer being the most common tumor type. Most patients (61%) were actively receiving cancer treatment at the time of the call, 17% had completed treatment, 13% had metastatic disease, and 9% had not started treatment.

About half of callers (52%) asked for assistance with at least 1 legal barrier, 32% needed help with at least 2 legal barriers, and 12% had at least 3 legal barriers.

The most common legal barriers were related to health insurance (n=933). Patients and their proxies called asking for assistance with Medicare approval, getting on Medicaid, insurance navigation, and appealing insurance denials.

Other common issues were:

• Financial (n=710) — financial assistance, housing assistance, and other issues
• Disability (n=619) — applying for disability insurance, appealing decisions, and other issues
• Employment (n=576) — taking time off, working through treatment, getting fired, returning to work, job searching, unemployment benefits, and other issues
• Other matters (n=391) — estate planning, life insurance, education, family law, and COVID-19-related issues.

These findings highlight the prevalence of legal barriers impacting cancer patients and their caregivers, said study presenter S. M. Qasim Hussaini, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“It really does underscore an urgent need for more accessible navigation programs,” he added. “How do we build those? What should they have?”

Disclosures: Two of the study authors are employed by Triage Cancer. The remaining authors said they have nothing to disclose. Please see the reference for a full list of disclosures.

Reference

Qasim Hussaini SM, Chen KY, Blackford AL, et al. Nationwide analysis of legal barriers impacting patients with cancer and caregivers. Presented at ASCO Quality Care Symposium 2023. October 27-28, 2023. Boston, Massachusetts. Abstract 300.

This article originally appeared on Cancer Therapy Advisor