When it comes to organizing medical information, it’s important for cancer patients to be proactive. As you explore your treatment options, having easy access to health records will help make you a stronger self-advocate. You’ll have peace of mind and be more confident knowing you have all relevant medical information at your disposal.
Many cancer patients say that one of the most difficult aspects of cancer treatment is loss of income during treatment. Extra costs for medical visits, copays, travel to appointments, medications, and other expenses add up quickly. However, there are laws meant to protect individuals undergoing medical treatment from losing their job. Additionally, if you have life insurance or other insurance policies through your employer, you may have access to financial resources you are not aware of. Provision CARES Proton Therapy team provides support and resources to help get you started in the process of exploring options that may be available to you as you are undergoing treatment. (more…)
When Kim Fuller found love and a new home in rural East Tennessee, she was harboring a frightening secret.
She had discovered a lump in her right breast. She told no one—not even her daughters. (more…)
Three bills aimed at helping patients get better insurance coverage for proton therapy are making the rounds of committees in Nashville this week, and Provision is urging patients and their friends and families to get involved.
For too many, trying to obtain the best treatment has brought them to blows with their insurance companies.
That was the case for Alexa Gash, who at 29 was diagnosed with throat cancer. Her father had recently suffered from the same diagnosis, and on the advice of the family’s physician, the couple began researching proton therapy. Because of Alexa’s age, they wanted to find a treatment that would be most effective but also spare her from unwanted long-term side effects. With conventional radiation, she risked permanent damage to her salivary glands, taste buds and teeth as well as the potential need for a feeding tube during and post-treatment due to a painful condition called mucositis caused by the excess radiation dose delivered outside of the tumor.
But, although Gash was determined a good candidate for proton therapy, her insurance company, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, disagreed and denied her request for coverage. The company designated her treatment “experimental” and denied appeals to reconsider her case based on the potential ramifications of conventional radiation therapy.
Even though Medicare has covered proton therapy for more than 20 years and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines support proton therapy in the treatment of head and neck cancer, BlueCross simply said “No.”
In recognition of the gap in coverage and the beneficial impact that proton therapy can have for cancer patients, several legislators have introduced several bills in the Tennessee General Assembly that would require insurance companies to cover proton therapy under specified conditions at no additional cost to the insurance companies. They include:
• House Bill 0883 (Rep. John Holsclaw) & Senate Bill 0210 (Sen. Dr. Mark Green): Requires the state group health insurance program to cover hypofractionated proton therapy for treating cancer under certain conditions.
• House Bill 0523 (Rep. Bob Ramsey) & Senate Bill 0367 (Sen. Doug Overbey): Requires health insurance coverage to cover hypofractionated proton therapy in the same manner as it covers intensity modulated radiation therapy under certain conditions.
• House Bill 0899 (Rep. Mark Pody) & Senate Bill 0758 (Sen. Mae Beavers): Prohibits certain health benefit plans that provide coverage for cancer therapy from holding proton radiation therapy to a higher standard of clinical evidence for medical policy benefit coverage decisions than the health plan requires for coverage of any other radiation therapy treatment.
Currently, the insurance company lobby is fighting the legislation in spite of this increased support for proton therapy in both research and legislative circles, as well as the growing development of proton therapy centers around the world. Instead, they wear out their own insureds with an endless appeal process forcing frustrated patients, their families and healthcare providers to seek redress in the courts or the legislature.
Over the coming days and weeks, the bills will be heard in the Joint Pensions and Insurance Committee chaired by Chattanooga’s Sen. Bo Watson, the Senate Finance and Labor Committee chaired by Franklin’s Sen. Jack Johnson and the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Kelly Keisling from Pickett County, Tennessee. Sen. Johnson has previously spoken out in favor of proton therapy in publicly supporting the development of Tennessee’s third proton center in his district.
Find out more about how to contact your legislator and help promote these proton therapy bills.
From carney kid to cancer survivor, life hasn’t followed a predictable trajectory for Jim McBride. Nonetheless, this businessman turned pastor and movie producer sees divine purpose in every step.
McBride, a pastor and producer of several popular Christian movies including Fireproof and Facing the Giants, recently completed treatment for prostate cancer at Provision Center for Proton Therapy.
When Ken decided he wanted to pursue proton therapy for his throat cancer instead of traditional radiation, he thought navigating his VA insurance would be tricky.
As it turned out, Ken benefited from a program called Veterans Choice, which allows veterans who have significant wait times for treatment or live at some distance from appropriate treatment facilities to receive care at a non-VA site of their choosing. CONTINUE READING
Insurance companies may not consider proton therapy a “medical necessity,” but a growing body of medical evidence and doctors opinions disagrees.
In a cover column featured in The American Journal of Managed Care, Dr. Steven Frank, medical director of the MD Anderson Proton Therapy Center, makes the case that it’s past time for insurance companies to include protons as an accepted, and covered, treatment for a variety of cancers.
Citing the many patients who are denied proton therapy by companies who deem it not “medically necessary” and “experimental”—or simply dismiss the claim without explanation—Frank argues that the term, “medical necessity” should be standardized rather than left to the subjective whims of business-oriented institutions.
“Why should insurance companies—whose financial incentives direct them toward cost savings—be dictating what is medically necessary for cancer treatment?” he writes. “Physicians have experienced inconsistency in the labeling of ‘medically necessary procedures for years. … In a study recently published in the International Journal of Particle Therapy, we found that insurance coverage of proton beam therapy in the State of Texas varied not only among payers, but also for the type of cancer.
“Even more concerning, a previous decision to cover proton therapy for prostate cancer was reversed and proton therapy was determined to be “not medically necessary” after the removal of key published references from the payer’s updated medical policy.”
Research is also showing that proton therapy can actually result in decreased overall medical costs for cancer patients, Frank writes.
“The episodic cost of care can be reduced when proton therapy decreases the amount of radiation to parts of the body that are not affected by the cancer by eliminating or reducing the severity of treatment-induced acute and long-term side effects and by reducing the risk of secondary cancers.
“One such study showed that hospital stays were longer for patients with esophageal cancer treated with older techniques (mean length of stay 13.2 days after conventional 3-dimensional radiation therapy, 11.6 days for intensity-modulated radiation therapy, and 9.3 days for proton therapy). Using advanced radiation therapy technologies like proton therapy can reduce postoperative complications and shorten hospital stays, which reduces healthcare costs.”
There are steps being taken toward broader insurance coverage for proton therapy. University of Texas System’s employees are participating in a one-year pilot program with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas (HCSC) and MD Anderson allowing proton therapy coverage for cancers of the head & neck, esophagus, breast, and lung as well as patients participating in proton therapy clinical trials. Information will be collected and shared about proton therapy and its costs, which will help to make the case that broader coverage should be extended to other states and healthcare systems.
“We need insurers across the country to think innovatively and provide leadership similar to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas by partnering with employers and providers to find ways to provide broader coverage for patients that will benefit from proton therapy, “ says Scott Warwick, Chairman of the National Association for Proton Therapy.
Proton therapy has been proven an effective and, in many cases, cost effective treatment option. It’s time for all of those involved in providing patient care acknowledge that reality, Frank concludes.
“Cancer touches thousands of lives each year in a truly indiscriminate way. However, we should not be arbitrary in the way we combat the disease and define medical necessity. If we wish to defeat cancer once and for all, all parties—both doctors and insurers—must finally unite in support of best practices such as proton therapy. Let’s start now and be advocates for all patients with cancer.”
Qualifying for proton therapy is one thing. Paying for it can be another.
Although Medicare covers proton therapy for seniors with cancer and most private policies provide coverage for children, patients who fall in between can have difficulty getting payment from their private insurers.
There are things that patients can do to help. All incoming patients to Provision Center for Proton Therapy receive a fact sheet (click here to download fact sheet) to give them tools to fight for coverage of proton therapy—for themselves and for others.
“We believe it’s important for patients to be empowered to fight for the coverage they deserve when facing a cancer diagnosis,” says Rhonda Turner, manager of financial services at Provision Center for Proton Therapy. “We know that we won’t always win every case, but together we can improve our chances for success.”
Here’s what financial services does to assist in the insurance process:
Here’s what patients can do to help:
Provision patients can also help in the fight for others, writing letters to insurance providers, sharing their stories on social media and contacting elected officials.
“Public pressure is the best way to ensure coverage of proton therapy in the future,” Turner says. “Nobody can communicate the need for proton therapy better than those who are being denied access to it.”
CLICK HERE to watch the segment.
Nearly five years ago, 32-year-old Lindsay Rumberger was diagnosed with epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, a long name for a rare cancer that had originated in her liver and metastasized to her lungs. She underwent chemotherapy, but when a tumor close to her spine showed signs of growth, radiation was part of the recommended course. Because conventional radiation treatment threatened to cause peripheral damage to this most sensitive part of the body, her doctors recommended proton therapy instead. However, the insurance provider disagreed, calling the treatment “experimental” and refused coverage. (more…)
When Jacques René Sirois was diagnosed with prostate cancer back in 2014, he knew what he wanted, and he didn’t mind waiting for it.
“I’m not a surgery type of person,” says Sirois, of Franklin, Tenn. For good reason. His brother, diagnosed at 56 with prostate cancer, had undergone a prostatectomy.
“He had surgery—I remember the pain he went through. He’s still suffering the effects at 64,” he says. “Another gentleman I know had radiation. He’s a total mess now.”
Then he met someone who had received proton therapy at the U.S.’s first treatment center in Loma Linda, Calif., and Sirois began looking into the option.
At his doctor’s office, the nurse practitioner offered a range of treatment alternatives, but proton therapy wasn’t on the list. His doctor mentioned it dismissively, because there is no treatment center there.
But Sirois had already found Provision Center for Proton Therapy himself, met with Dr. Marcio Fagundes and made his decision.
“After the consult I said, ‘I know what it’s going to be,’” Sirois says.
His insurance, Cigna, disagreed, denying coverage for proton therapy. He was 64. So Sirois decided to wait for Medicare, taking hormone therapy in hopes of keeping the cancer at bay until then. The plan worked. His PSA level went down, and he was able to wait until insurance kicked in, and he could travel to Knoxville.
But he didn’t wait to spread the good word about proton therapy. Sirois says two patients have come to Provision for cancer treatment on his recommendation, while another sought proton therapy treatment at a different center. And when he finally was able do the treatment himself, all lived up to his expectations.
He traveled from Franklin, a town just outside of Nashville, each week alone for treatment. But at Provision, he says, gesturing toward the lobby, “you’re not going to sit here by yourself.” He’s found the same level of hospitality among the Provision staff, which has made the stretches he’s away from home a little easier, he says.
“I am just amazed at the bedside manners,” Sirois says. “It’s from the minute I walk in to the minute I walk out.”
His friends at home didn’t forget him, though. They sent a Teddy bear, dubbed “Illie Willie,” along to keep him company. Each treatment Sirois hangs onto Illie instead instead of the rubber ring patients typically clutch while the protons do their work. During the day he hangs out with another bear brought by Sharon Hall, Provision hospitality coordinator.
“There have been nothing but positive things coming here,” he says.