Study Reveals Cancer Treatment Costs High

June 7, 2011

Patients out of pocket costs high

The June 7, 2011 NAHU Newswire includes the following articles:

A report presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncologists meeting suggested that patients with insurance are discontinuing care because costs are too high. The study of 216 patients (all but one had health insurance) with breast cancer averaged out of pocket monthly expenses around $712. A study recently released by the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that 13 percent of cancer patients spend more than 20 percent of their income on insurance premiums and medical expenses.

Medical loss ratio provisions associated with Healthcare reform may yield over a billion dollars in rebates to individual policyholders. Starting this year, carriers must spend at least eighty percent of premium dollars collected on healthcare or quality improvement efforts or be subject to refunding excess premiums to policyholders.

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