Financial Advocacy Should Start Before Patients Learn They Have Cancer, Says Dr Nadine Barrett

Financial advocacy should start before a patient ever hears the words “you’ve got cancer” by ensuring people have programs that focus on health and well-being in the community, including access to housing, employment, and information about financial literacy, said Nadine J. Barrett, PhD, MA, MS, FACCC, senior associate dean for community engagement and equity in research, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health, and the current president of the Association of Cancer Care Centers.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Transcript

What role does financial advocacy play in closing the gap in cancer care disparities?

Financial advocacy is critical, and it's critical across the entire cancer spectrum. It's not just critical in terms of when someone hears the words, “You've got cancer,” and we start talking about it from a financial toxicity standpoint. It's actually even before that. We need to focus and advocate for financial well-being—if you will—really from the very beginning, before someone even hears the words, “You've got cancer.”

As health systems and institutions, it's our responsibility to work together with our communities to be able to help build up that type of work. A great example of that is in Winston Salem, North Carolina, where Wake Forest is actually working with the community in an area called Metropolitan Village. This is really focusing on promoting health and well-being in the community with the community. That means housing. It means access and opportunities for workforce development and employment. It also increases and engages access to research and promoting good health and health and well-being. This is organizations working with the communities toward identifying solutions. I think that's one great example.

Other examples, of course, are where people again are engaging with communities to identify the best possible ways that we can work toward ensuring that people have access to information, and that includes financial literacy. Both in Metropolitan Village, as well as within our systems, we need to be working together to understand financial literacy, understanding the burden of cancer, and how much it's going to cost, and then making sure our systems are in place to ensure that our charity care programs are really and truly in place and effective for patients who truly can't afford their care or need support as they go through their cancer care and treatment.

Financial advocacy is advocacy advocating for a system change while also advocating in the community to ensure the people, when they hear the words “you've got cancer” or when they simply need screening that finances is not a barrier to them getting what they need.