1011 - Education and Resource Needs of Financial Advocacy Staff Serving Radiation Oncology Patients

R. Kajdic Hodzic¹, C. Mangir², M. Manning³, W. Waugh⁴, F. Scott-Jones⁵, E. Plotkin¹, M. Kisiel¹, A. Lile¹, and E. H. Carroll¹; ¹Association of Cancer Care Centers, Rockville, MD, ²Rhizome, LLC, Washington, DC, DC, ³Cone Health, Greensboro, NC, ⁴Southern Ohio Medical Center, Portsmouth, OH, ⁵Northside Hospital Cancer Institute, Atlanta, GA

Purpose/Objective(s): Cancer treatments, including radiation therapy, can lead to severe financial hardship during and after the treatment process. Oncology financial advocacy (FA) programs deliver services that can prevent or mitigate financial stress. While less financial assistance resources are available in the radiation oncology setting, interventions such as financial distress screening, patient education, scheduling flexibility, subsidizing transportation, and financial toxicity tumor boards can minimize financial distress for patients undergoing radiation therapy. In 2023, the Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) conducted discussions with members to identify barriers for delivering FA services to radiation therapy patients. Building on those findings, ACCC’s Financial Advocacy Network conducted a member Census in 2023 to determine the educational requirements for enhancing the expertise and abilities of financial advocates and navigators. Materials/

Methods: ACCC convened an expert multidisciplinary advisory committee to guide this research. A Census was authored and distributed to ACCC member programs between May 1 – June 20, 2023. Clinical and non-clinical health care professionals involved in delivering FA services to people with cancer were invited to participate. The Census was administered via Qualtrics and included 19 structured response and 5 open-ended response questions. Exploratory analysis was performed to identify themes relevant to patients receiving radiation therapy.
Results: 95 respondents representing 70 unique organizations and 31 states participated in the Census. Most respondents were financial advocates (36%), followed by administrators (34%), nurse/nurse navigators (14%), and patient navigators (11%). When asked to identify topics for preferred education and resources, 55% of respondents identified the need for additional FA interventions for radiation oncology – the fourth most common response out of a list of 15 topics. Other top education needs included deeper dives into FA functions (71%), financial health literacy (62%), and financial distress screening (55%). Additionally, the top challenge faced when delivering FA services were a lack of financial resources available to help patients (74%).
Conclusion: In the face of limited financial resources to facilitate patient care, the development of strategies and interventions to alleviate financial distress for patients receiving radiation treatment has been identified as a primary FA educational need by cancer centers throughout the United States. These insights will guide ACCC in setting education priorities for radiation oncology staff, including the distribution of ACCC’s Financial Advocacy Services Guidelines. The guidelines provide a framework for enhancing the ability to deliver FA services equitably to all cancer patients including those receiving radiation therapy.