Recently Diagnosed Cancer Patients Unable to Get Oncologist's Appointment Easily

New research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennnsylvania has found that newly diagnosed cancer patients face difficulties in getting an appointment with oncologists. Even those who have private health insurance are put to a lot of trouble before getting an appointment.

Lead author Keerthi Gogineni, MD, an instructor in the division of Hematology-Oncology at Penn's Abramson Cancer Center, said, "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. Given the typical pre-appointment expectations for new patients - which typically involve referral requirements, paperwork and routing of medical records and test results - both insured and uninsured patients must contend with many challenges that delay care with a specialty cancer provider."



Source-Medindia