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Financial Toxicity in Multiple Myeloma: How to Avoid Medical Debt During Treatment
Financial Toxicity in Multiple Myeloma: How to Avoid Medical Debt During Treatment. Financial toxicity affects many multiple myeloma patients. Learn how to reduce medical debt, understand treatment costs, find financial assistance, and protect your family’s finances.
The challenge with a diagnosis of multiple myeloma is that the patient focuses on his/her healthcare, not the charges resulting from that healthcare and medical debt.
My Experience as a Long-Term Myeloma Survivor
I was diagnosed with myeloma in 1994. I crashed headlong into medical debt after several years of struggling with “explanation of benefits” (E.O.B.) that I received following surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation for my treatment of multiple myeloma. Ironically, my aggressive, toxic cancer treatments didn’t extend my life but caused a host of short-term, long-term, and late-stage side effects.
I’ve written about the cost of chemotherapy, the cost of everything hospital-related, and then most importantly, the final result- medical debt. Financial toxicity can be as devastating to the cancer patient as any chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery can be.
Please, please, please don’t think that you have to blithely agree to every therapy suggested by your oncologist. There are always choices to be made. An excellent example is the use of a class of drugs called bisphosphonates.
- Number of monthly doses-
- Zometa vs. Denosumab-
You could undergo Aredia therapy for only 6 months or for 12 months. You could undergo Zometa, which is a fraction of the cost of Denosumab.
Have you been diagnosed with cancer? To learn more about financial toxicity read the blog posts linked above or scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Thank you,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
What is financial toxicity?
“Financial toxicity” refers to the harmful, overwhelming out-of-pocket costs, lost income, and psychological distress caused by a cancer diagnosis and its treatment.
Why is myeloma so expensive?
Multiple Myeloma is exceptionally expensive to treat because it is a chronic, relapsing cancer requiring lifelong, continuous therapy. Costs are driven by a combination of cutting-edge therapies, complex bespoke manufacturing, and heavy reliance on combination drugs that can quickly exceed $200,000 to $300,000 annually. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
How much does multiple myeloma treatment cost?
Multiple myeloma treatments typically cost between $125,000 and $300,000+ per year, depending on the specific phase of the disease, combination therapies, and duration of care. Total lifetime healthcare costs can average upwards of $400,000 to $750,000, but out-of-pocket expenses are largely determined by your specific insurance coverage.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
Can cancer treatment cause bankruptcy?
Yes, cancer treatment can absolutely cause bankruptcy. Studies show that people diagnosed with cancer are roughly two and a half times more likely to declare bankruptcy than those without a cancer history, with many facing severe “financial toxicity” due to out-of-pocket medical bills and lost income. [1, 2, 3]
What financial assistance programs exist?
Financial assistance programs are categorized by government, non-profit, and local resources that help with basic living expenses, healthcare, and housing
How do I talk to my doctor about treatment costs?
Be direct and frame the conversation as part of your care plan. Say, “I want to make sure I can manage this treatment, so cost is a big factor for me. What are our options, and what will they cost?”
Financial Toxicity and Myeloma: Key Facts
- About 22% of myeloma patients experience financial toxicity.
- More than one-third of patients on maintenance therapy report significant time toxicity.
- Financial toxicity is associated with poorer mental quality of life.
- Out-of-pocket costs are one of the strongest predictors of financial hardship.
Supported by recent myeloma research.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can multiple myeloma cause financial hardship?
Yes. Multiple myeloma often requires ongoing treatment, monitoring, medications, and travel that can create significant financial burdens.
How can I reduce medical debt during cancer treatment?
Patients may reduce costs through insurance optimization, financial assistance programs, nonprofit support organizations, and discussions with financial navigators.
Are there financial assistance programs for myeloma patients?
Yes. Several organizations offer copay assistance, travel grants, medication support, and insurance guidance.
To learn more about Financial Toxicity in Multiple Myeloma
- Multiple Myeloma Need to Know
- Multiple Myeloma Survivor Story
- Chemotherapy Side Effects
- Peripheral Neuropathy
- Cancer Coaching
- Myeloma Side Effects
- Integrative Oncology
- Managing Cancer Fatigue
- Celebrities with Multiple Myeloma
- Cancer Coaching- Financial Toxicity and Possible Solutions
- Distress, Financial Issues in Myeloma Mean Shorter OS
- The Cost of Surviving AYA Cancer- Suleika Jaouad
Sick and struggling to pay, 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt
“Elizabeth Woodruff drained her retirement account and took on three jobs after she and her husband were sued for nearly $10,000 by the New York hospital where his infected leg was amputated.
Ariane Buck, a young father in Arizona who sells health insurance, couldn’t make an appointment with his doctor for a dangerous intestinal infection because the office said he had outstanding bills.
Allyson Ward and her husband loaded up credit cards, borrowed from relatives, and delayed repaying student loans after the premature birth of their twins left them with $80,000 in debt. Ward, a nurse practitioner, took on extra nursing shifts, working days and nights…”
Here’s what the new ban on surprise medical billing means for you
“The new year brings new protections for patients with private health insurance who will no longer be blindsided by “surprise” medical bills when they unknowingly receive out-of-network care…
The No Surprises Act, passed by Congress in 2020 as part of the coronavirus relief package, takes effect Jan. 1.
It generally forbids insurers from passing along bills from doctors and hospitals that are not covered under a patient’s plan — such bills have often left patients to pay hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars in outstanding fees. Instead, the new law requires health care providers and insurers to work out a deal between themselves…
Once the law takes effect, “it’s completely irrelevant whether an emergency room doctor is in network or not,” he said. “For all intents and purposes, that doctor is in network. The patient will pay the in-network cost sharing and there is a price the provider has to accept, and the insurer has to pay.”
Where the Frauds Are All Legal
“Much of what we accept as legal in medical billing would be regarded as fraud in any other sector…
Now, after a summer of firsthand experience — my husband was in a bike crash in July — it’s time to call out this fact head-on. Many of the Democratic candidates are talking about practical fixes for our high-priced health care system, and some legislated or regulated solutions to the maddening world of medical billing would be welcome…
My husband, Andrej, flew over his bicycle’s handlebars when he hit a pothole at high speed on a Sunday ride in Washington. He was unconscious and lying on the pavement when I caught up with him minutes later. The result: six broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a broken finger, a broken collarbone and a broken shoulder blade.
The treatment he got via paramedics and in the emergency room and intensive care unit were great. The troubles began, as I knew they would, when the bills started arriving…
What I’m talking about here were the bills for things that simply didn’t happen, or only kind-of, sort-of happened, or were mislabeled as things they were not, or were so nebulously defined that I couldn’t figure out what we might be paying for.
To be clear, many of the charges that I would call fraudulent — maybe all of them — are technically legal (thanks sometimes to lobbying by providers), but that doesn’t make them right. And no one would accept them if they appeared on bills delivered by a contractor, or a lawyer or an auto mechanic…
Why do insurers pay? Partly because insurers have no way to know whether you got a particular item or service. But also because it’s not worth their time to investigate the millions of medical interactions they write checks for each day. Despite the advertised concern about your well-being, as one benefits manager enlightened me: They’re “too big to care about you.” Electronic records, which auto-fill billing boxes, have probably made things worse. For example, the birth of a baby boy may automatically prompt a bill for a circumcision; having day surgery may prompt a check for sedation…
So what is the appropriate payment for swag I didn’t ask for,
- outrageous cover charges,
- stand-in doctors,
- drive-by visits and
- faux surgery?
In some cases, zero; in others, far less than was paid. And yet, these are all everyday, normal experiences in today’s health care system, and they may be perfectly legal. If we want to tame the costs in our $3 trillion health system, we’ve got to rein in this behavior, which is fraud by any other name…”
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