Today, this New York Times article entitled: Insurance Lags as Cancer Care comes in a Pill revealed the communication gap between patients, doctors, technology and insurance companies.
With oral cancer drugs, “the technology has outstripped the ability of society to integrate it into the mainstream in a smooth fashion,” said Carlton Sedberry, a pharmacy expert at Medical Marketing Economics, a consulting firm.Cancer pills provide a convenient alternative to IV chemotherapy since it reduces the number of visits that patients need to make to the hospital. However, most insurance companies do not cover these pills even though alternative therapies are covered. This makes the cost of this treatment weigh heavily in the pockets of the patients. Additionally, there may be problems with controlling dosage quantities and interpreting side effects. This new wave of cancer therapy still has a long way to go before becoming mainstream as doctors, patients and society learn to deal with the challenges that arise.
