Dear all: We're still in the thick of treatment and have a looming open thoracotomy. (My 77 y.o. father has a 7 cm NSCLC tumor in his LRL.) He's originally from Hawaii but once we saw the CT scan with the large mass, I immediately moved him closer to me to the Bay Area and now, he's at UCSF. I recently learned that UCSF is "in-network" with UHC's Med Adv PPO. However, his providers (oncologist and surgeon) are "out of network." I don't have to tell anyone here how expensive cancer treatment is and will be. The system is challenging - it took me numerous calls to UHC and UCSF to figure out that "likely" the providers are not in network. Open enrollment will not be until October so he cannot change plans. And given the cancer diagnosis, my dad will not be able to enroll in any supplemental plans. Any advice or suggestions especially on navigating the system, preparing for post surgery tx and monitoring would be much appreciated. (If you're more comfortable, please message me privately.)🙏❤️
UHC Medicare Advantage PPO - Advice, pls! - Lung Cancer Support
UHC Medicare Advantage PPO - Advice, pls!
There's an organization called Cancer Care. They help people with all cancers, donations received for lung cancer only go to patients with lung cancer, etc. Their website is cancer care.org
Contact the oncology social worker at the hospital and see what resources they can offer.
Thanks for the reply Denzie. But it appears that Cancer Care doesn't go beyond the tri-state area. We are in CA. Sadly, the social worker assigned to thoracic onc hasn't been very much help...
Hm, I don't know of a fund to help with situations like this that are currently open. I would suggest reaching out to Triage Cancer to see if this situation is considered a surprise billing situation since UCSF is covered. I'm not an expert in this but Triage Cancer might have some insight or suggestions.
Link about surprise billing: insurance.ca.gov/01-consume...
Link to intake a Triage Cancer: triagecancer.org/gethelp
Hi Miranda: Thank you so much for posting these resources. Given that we self-referred to UCSF and Stanford, I'm not sure if the "surprise billing law" applied to us. Plus, he's not a CA resident. But regardless, thank you for posting!🙏
The non profit that has helped me is Lazarex, I know they are outside the tri state area and the staff is very helpful.Look them up online, hope this is helpful
Lazarex Cancer Foundation | P.O. Box 741 Danville, CA 94526
925-820-4517 O. | 925-552-7305 F. | 1-877-866-9523 | lazarex.org
What It's Like to Be in a Lung Cancer Clinical Trial - Part One, Background Information
