Most doctors did not discuss the cost of cancer treatment with patients, spent less than two minutes on it when they did, and usually did so only after patients brought it up, a study that taped hundreds of visits at several large hospitals finds.
Cancer patients are three times more likely to declare bankruptcy than people without cancer are, but many doctors are not having the conversations that might help prevent this and sometimes don’t know the cost themselves, the results suggest.
“That would not occur in any other industry I can think of” where a service or product is sold, said the study leader, Dr. Rahma Warsame of the Mayo Clinic.
Results were released Wednesday by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and will be discussed next month at its annual meeting in Chicago.
The study has some limitations – it’s not nationwide, and it includes newly diagnosed patients, where cost is most likely to come up, as well as others further along in treatment who may have discussed this earlier.