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Financial Management
Financial Stress and Cancer Care
- Cancer can greatly affect a family’s finances. If one of the parents may need to stop working, it would greatly affect the income of the family. As the income decreases while the spending goes up, this will add on financial burden to the family.
- Oncologists and health economists use the term “financial toxicity” to describe the harmful effects inflicted by medical expenses and the impact of illness.
- Areas of extra expenditure:
- medicines that are not covered under Hospital Authority or private health insurance plans
- medical tests (e.g. PET-CT, CT scans, genetic tests) that are done in private sector
- special medical equipment
- extra traveling cost for medical appointments, tests and treatment appointments
- nutritional supplements (e.g. nutritional milk)
- extra cost for child care, nursing care, home helpers
Geting bills and insurances organised
- Keep good notes
- Keep track of all medical expenses, including those that are paid and those to be covered from insurance if any.
- Make a record of the conversation when you talk to social worker or representative from insurance company.
- Find a way to record and store your financial information
- Make a good record on the paperwork about costs of cancer, including:
- Hospital, doctor and treatment bills
- Insurance claims/explanations of benefits
- Other receipts, such as pharmacy bills
- Tools that help get organised:
- Paper file folders
- Computer spreadsheets (Excel)
- Electronic health records
- Some mobile apps can help recording down your expenses
- Have a plan to handle bills and payments
- Try to know how much cancer and its treatment cost
- Plan for household income and ways to lower costs
- Think about automatic bill payment for regular monthly bills, like electricity bills, rent or mortgage, so one can focus on the new paperwork that comes in.
- Ask for help
- Ask your family members or friends to handle your bills
- Talk to social worker for any community resources
