Pharmacists Ease Cancer Patients' Financial Burdens

A new study on the effects of cancer patients’ financial burdens suggests that pharmacists can play a role in easing or preventing some of their stress.

Lead study author Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, associate professor at Duke Cancer Institute, told Pharmacy Times that he relies heavily on clinical pharmacists to help determine cancer patients’ costs, especially when he prescribes oral chemotherapy.

“I usually ask our pharmacists to run the prescription through the patient’s insurance first, even before talking to the patient about the drug,” Dr Zafar told Pharmacy Times. “This way, the patient isn’t stuck at the pharmacy with a prohibitively expensive prescription.”

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Source: Pharmacy Times