Kathy Oubre, Chief Executive Officer at Pontchartrain Cancer Center, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Great discussion with Drs. Sanjay Juneja, and Kate Baker during the The American Journal of Managed Care and Targeted Oncology’s webinar – Access, Affordability, and Accountability: A New Era in Oncology Reimbursement!
Affordability is not separate from cancer care—it is part of cancer care.
Financial toxicity goes far beyond concern about a bill. It can affect a patient’s emotional well-being, financial security, treatment decisions, and ability to remain on therapy. The same cost may be manageable for one family and devastating for another, which is why listening to each patient’s circumstances matters.
A clinically appropriate treatment is only truly effective when the patient can access it, begin it on time, and continue it safely. When cost becomes a barrier, our response should be advocacy: clearer communication, benefit verification, timely appeals, financial navigation, assistance resources, and shared decision-making—not leaving patients to solve a fragmented system on their own.
There is real opportunity for progress. We can screen earlier, provide warm handoffs instead of brochures, assign clear ownership, and measure whether financial barriers are actually resolved.
For healthcare leaders, the next step can be practical: map one patient’s journey from treatment decision to treatment start, identify one recurring barrier, and assign one accountable leader to remove it. Meaningful change begins when we make the problem visible—and act together to protect access.
Every patient deserves care that is not only medically sound, but realistically accessible and sustainable.”
Other posts featuring Kathy Oubre on OncoDaily.