For New Cancer Patients, It's Hard To Get Treatment

Getting a cancer diagnosis is frightening. Not being able to book an appointment with an oncologist to begin treatment might be even more frightening.

Yet University of Pennsylvania medical researchers say that's frequently the case. They have found that newly diagnosed cancer patients often face hurdles in obtaining an initial appointment for care with an oncologist.

Even patients with private health insurance had difficulty scheduling an appointment, with just 22 percent of them obtaining a slot, compared to 29 percent of uninsured patients and 17 percent of patients on Medicaid, according to results of a study in which research assistants posed as patients seeking an initial evaluation.

Insurance doesn't seem to help

“Although healthcare reform is likely to expand health insurance coverage to more Americans, our research shows that even with insurance, patients face barriers when they try to access cancer care,” said lead author Keerthi Gogineni, MD, an instructor in the division of Hematology-Oncology at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center.

Given the typical pre-appointment expectations for new patients – which typically involve referral requirements, paperwork and routing of medical records and test results – Gogineni says both insured and uninsured patients must contend with many challenges that delay care with a specialty cancer provider.”

It's not that there aren't enough oncologists, although that could be a contributing factor. Instead, the study found bureaucratic obstacles to getting that first appointment.

Among reasons for denial of appointments or inability to schedule was demand for medical records, not being able to reach appropriate schedulers, and referral requirements.

Will get worse

The authors suggest that the access problems revealed in the study may become more urgent in the coming years, given Institute of Medicine and ASCO projections showing a widening gap between the number of people living with cancer and the number of practicing oncologists available to care for them.

For those who are successful in getting an appointment with an oncologist, the news is much better. The National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation reports there are about 12 million cancer survivors in the U.S. A cancer survivor is defined as anyone living with a history of cancer, from the time of diagnosis through the remainder of his or her life.

The 24th National Cancer Survivors Day is June 5.

"This annual event is a national recognition that we have made significant progress in the fight against cancer," said Dr. Patricia Robinson, director of Loyola University Health System's Cancer Survivorship Program.