The June 15, 2021 session of Duke Medicine LEADS featured Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, FASCO, presenting, "Intervening on the Financial Toxicity of Health Care."
Here are pearls and takeaways from the session:
- Patients with increased financial distress suffer increased mortality. As an example, patients with a cancer diagnosis are 2.6x more likely to declare bankruptcy. Patients who have declared bankruptcy then have a >75% increased risk of mortality!
- To address financial toxicity, interventions are needed at the policy, provider, and patient levels.
- Providers should focus on preventing, assessing for, and reducing financial toxicity in their patients.
- Work to incorporate costs of care into goals of care discussions. Is it within a patient's goals of care to undergo this treatment that costs this much? Pharmacists and financial counselors can be great resources to talk about these specifics with.
Duke Medicine Learning, Education, and Discussion Series (LEADS) takes place each Tuesday at 12 p.m. Learn more and see schedule of upcoming sessions.
