Cancer patients and their doctors should be fighting cancer, not insurance companies.
Our new report, Cancer Care Denied: The Broken State of Patient Access to Proton Therapy, documents – through patient stories and data – the heavy emotional and financial burden cancer patients endure trying to get their insurer’s approval for physician-recommended proton radiation therapy. Among the report’s most sobering statistics:
- Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of cancer patients aged 18 to 64 receive denials from their insurers when their doctors recommend proton therapy.
- Patients and their physicians are sometimes successful in reversing the initial denial, but time spent waiting – and delaying treatment – averages nearly three weeks (13 working days).
- In the end, proton therapy is denied more than four times out of ten (42 percent) and it takes an average of more than five weeks (27 working days) to receive that final denial.
Our CANCER CARE DENIED campaign aims to shift the balance of power and give physicians and patients more say in cancer care. We are calling on insurance commissioners in all 50 states to adopt and enforce principles of a Cancer Patients’ Timely Treatment Bill of Rights and hold insurers accountable for providing fair, timely, and transparent access to cancer treatment.
You can learn more about the Cancer Care Denied campaign by watching the our Facebook Live. Check out the Resources sidebar, take the actions below, and contact us if you’d like your organization to endorse the Bill of Rights.
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