Financial Help for Cancer Patients in California

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The six-letter word cancer is enough to give you sleepless nights. Right from the moment of cancer diagnosis to the end of the treatment the period, a patient and his or her family go through a lot of mental and physical stress. Besides this, the financial pressure is another thing that they need to deal with.

All you need to know about programs and resources to help with cancer-related expenses

The treatment expense mainly depends on factors like the time required and spend in the hospital, prescribed medicines, visits to clinics, surgeries, care after treatment, etc. If you have a solid health insurance plan, then it can cover a major part of your total expense.

However, if you do not have the support of health insurance, go through the blog to get more information about the help you may be able to get to handle the finances.

Apart from the planned expenses, cancer treatment cost can increase unexpectedly for some reasons like

  • Extension of treatment period
  • development of complication
  • Reoccurrence of cancer

Here are some of the ways you can get financial help to manage the treatment expenditure

1. Help with short term housing close to the cancer treatment center

You may need to go far from your home to receive better treatment. In that case, you can go for a cancer treatment center in California that offers short term housing centers or discount programs set up with nearby hotels and motels. The social workers in the clinic or oncology nurse may provide you with useful information regarding low-cost housing during the treatment period.

2. Help with food cost

There are some government plans available for patients that help to manage the food expenses for low-income people. The US Department of Agriculture has also come up with an arrangement like this where it offers food help to people coming from various income groups. Based on their criteria, some families are even capable of qualifying for more than one type of help. To know more about these programs, you can contact the National Hunger Hotline at 1-866-348-6479 1-866-3-HUNGRY); for Spanish, call 1-877-842-6273.

3. Help with transportation cost

People who have Medicaid, which is a state and federal program that supports the people of low-incomes groups with medical expenses, may get help with travel expenses during treatment. County departments of social services in each state render help in terms of transportation costs but families need to ask for it by informing their Medicaid caseworker.

American Cancer Society Road to Recovery® program is also available in some areas where trained volunteers bear the responsibility to drive patients and their families to medical centers. Get in touch with the Cancer Society Office to get more information about the facility.

4. Help with housing needs or mortgage payment

Cancer is an expensive disease and the burden of treatment expenses sometimes even makes it difficult for families to pay rent or the mortgage amount on time. In order to maintain a good credit rating and to save your home, contact your creditor or landlord and tell them about your situation so that special arrangements can be made. Those who need to leave their homes after cancer detection can get in touch with the country department of social services for help.

5. Help with other expenses

Another program named Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a grant program targeted to the families with low earnings. It offers a certain amount of cash on monthly basis to help people handle their regular expenses like, housing, clothing, transportation, phone, medical supplies not covered by Medicaid and basic needs. The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is a similar program, that is built to give financial help for cancer patients with low income.

Related Post: Get Financial Assistance for Cancer Treatment

I hope this information will be helpful for you in dealing with your finances during the treatment period of yours or your loved ones. Always remember that Cancer is no more a deadly disease, early detection, proper treatment and mental support can help patients live long and lead a happy life.

crlfoundationwpFinancial Help for Cancer Patients in California
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RADIATION IN LYMPHOMA

So again my friends and colleagues in radiation oncology recommended an inferior treatment for a patient with advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This time, is a young female with residual disease status post targeted therapy with Brentuximab. Radiation is offered to mediastinal nodes.

Well, it just reminded me of my cousin who called my clinic a few years ago, and asked if I recall her. I said no, I do not remember I had a cousin with that name. ( She said she saw me last when I was 2 years old), and said I was a very hyper kid!!! No wonder…but here is how she found me again she was looking at my publications where I talk about radiation causing harm on stem cell levels ( through WNT pathways) and causing EMT. Further she found me as she was exactly working on the same field at Harvard, wnt pathway!! And referred me to her publication talking about the harms this can cause.

She became an active board member and continues to work at Harvard to investigate what I just said. Here in this case, I had to refer my patient to following study, so she can share this with her extremely educated ( sarcastic) oncologist:

http://cancer.unm.edu/patients/comprehensive-care/radiation-therapy/

In 1989, researchers in France began a clinical trial to compare chemotherapy alone with chemotherapy plus radiation therapy for treatment of patients with advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma. They randomly allocated 559 patients with advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma to receive chemotherapy plus total nodal irradiation (radiation therapy to lymph nodes in the chest, neck and abdomen) or chemotherapy alone. The 5-year survival without recurrence was 74% for patients who were treated with chemotherapy alone and 79% for those who were treated with chemotherapy plus radiation. Overall survival at 5 years was 94% for patients receiving chemotherapy alone and 78% for patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

crlfoundationwpRADIATION IN LYMPHOMA
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IS IT JUST ME, OR IS IT REAL???

I am seeing patients that have been so mismanaged by their cancer providers to the extent of unreal!

It just feels that these folks have not had a chance in their entire journey to see a physician who gave a damn to take care of them. I am AMAZED! The lady shows up and she is paralyzed with cancer in her spine, and yet she is not been evaluated, and all her oncologist is doing is trying to give her more oral pills!! Of course, she needed to be evaluated months ago with referrals to surgery, etc… and the other patient happens to have new brain lesions, all metastatic disease from breast cancer, they are all new, and yet her oncologist says he recommends that she continues the same regimen of chemo because she has RESPONDED elsewhere (in her breast) !!!! I first did not believe this, so I contacted the oncologist and I gave him my recommendations. Of course she has to switch her drugs, that is STANDARD OF CARE. (I assume the people who claim they follow standard of care, they should at least know it!!!), Well to my surprise, the oncologist confirms that this is in deed his plan. Continue the Taxotere and herceptin (which by the way does not readily pass the blood brain barrier). ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????????

God, In my field, practicing integrative medicine is so…..much more like the standard of care, because the least I do, is to THINK! Really…being a genius, as I am called, is so easy when you are surrounded by a bunch of fools!

Ya!

crlfoundationwpIS IT JUST ME, OR IS IT REAL???
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