out of pocket co-pays

Worry less and save money on your cancer treatment

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 my first and foremost concern was of course for my health and to be able to see my two young daughters Jessica (then 5 yrs) and Emily (then almost 2 yrs) grow up.

My second concern was how much my cancer treatment would cost and how much of a financial hardship it would be for my family. I was (and still am) a stay at home mom, so our family was already on a pretty tight budget.

I spent a lot of sleepless nights worrying about how much my treatment of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation would cost and how we would pay for it.

I was soon committed to not let my cancer treatment be a financial drain on my family. As you go through cancer treatment you have a lot of nights that you have trouble sleeping either due to the treatment medications you are taking or the worry in your mind and in your heart.

I decided whenever I couldn’t sleep I would research ways to save money on my cancer treatment and apply for anything that I could in order to save as much money as possible on my treatment.

Had I known through my ten months of treatment all that I know now I could have applied for programs earlier and maximized more of my benefits and probably had many fewer sleepless nights worrying about how we would pay for my treatment.

My goal is to help others who are burdened by this horrible disease called cancer. Hopefully the information on Cancerbutterfly.com will ease your mind about the financial side of your treatment, so you can focus on your health.

I wish you much luck with your health and your financial side of cancer.

I could have saved an additional $2,326.57 on my cancer treatment!

If I had found out about these money saving cancer treatment programs earlier in my breast cancer treatment I could have saved an additional $2,326.57 on my out of pocket co-pays!

I did save $4,276.61 on my out of pocket co-pays for my cancer treatment, however finding out at the end of my treatment that I could have saved an additional $2,326.57 was devastating!

That was money that came directly out of my family’s pocket since I didn’t know about all the cost savings available to me at the beginning or even middle of my treatment! Many of the money saving programs available have time deadlines relating to your treatment and many of the programs also have retro rules regarding how far back in time they will allow you to use your benefits on prior treatments that occurred before the date you were actually “approved” in order to use your awarded benefits.

Since I had found out about these programs so late in my treatment, (I actually found out about them after had just finished chemotherapy), I had been awarded a certain amount of benefits that I could use but I was only able to use it on my last chemo treatment due to the programs retro rules on how far back you are allowed to use your awarded benefits 🙁

Needless to say this was extremely disappointing and frustrating to find out! So my hope is to help other cancer patients learn about and understand these programs as early as possible in their treatment so they can save as much money as possible on their out of pocket cancer treatment expenses.

I saved over $4,200 on my out of pocket cancer treatment expenses!

There are several ways to save money on out of pocket cancer treatment expenses.

I went through ten months of treatment for breast cancer that included chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation oncology. Cancer treatment can be very expensive depending on what type of insurance you have.

The money saving programs available that I discovered toward the end of my treatment saved our family thousands of dollars on our out of pocket expenses on insurance co-pays and deductibles. I saved $4,276.61 to be exact! This is an amazing amount of savings.

However, had I known about these programs earlier in my treatment I could have further maximized the benefits, as some of the programs are time sensitive relating to when you receive treatment, and I could have saved thousands of dollars more.

The programs available can provide discounts on hospital expenses such as surgery, big tests like MRI, PET scan, mammograms, blood work, ultrasound, etc.

The discounts available for chemotherapy treatment can save you thousands on your out of pocket co-pays relating to the chemotherapy drugs and other cancer treatment related drugs you receive.

The discounts available for radiation oncology can also save thousands on your out of pocket co-pays relating to your radiation treatment. I am excited to share all the resources that I uncovered during my treatment and help guide cancer patients along the way.

The cancer road is not an easy one, especially the financial side of it. However, I have been there and I can guide you through your financial side of treatment and help you save as much money as possible on your out of pocket cancer related treatment expenses.