From a Specialty Pharmacy Liaison– The other day I received a call from one of my breast cancer patients to thank me for connecting her to the Resource Navigator, and online resource database, here at my hospital. She had called about a week ago, stressed out and almost in tears because she wasn’t sure how she would afford her treatment.
She had reached out to me because she knew I had knowledge of various foundations for cancer patients and that I would guide her on how to reach out for some help in paying personal bills. Luckily here at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, we have a team dedicated to helping our patients with financial assistance and counselors to help patients cope with their cancer treatments.
Our financial assistance team was able to help her by securing four months of financial assistance to use towards her house and other personal bills. When I told her the news, she was extremely grateful that I knew who to refer her to. She was also incredibly relieved that she could finally stop worrying about her bills and concentrate solely on her cancer treatment. She was not expecting to receive thousands of dollars in assistance, and it made me so happy to help her connect to the right team.