How Patient Navigators Help With Finances, Transportation & More During Your Cancer Journey

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Helping You Navigate the Cancer Treatment Process

Patient navigators can be an invaluable help during your cancer journey.
They can guide patients though the treatment process, including setting up appointments, getting them financial, legal or other forms of support, setting up transportation, and more.
A patient navigator can also help patients communicate with doctors, insurance companies, employers, lawyers, or others involved in medical care.

A patient navigator is someone who assists patients throughout their cancer journeys, which may include getting a diagnosis, treatment, navigating finances, getting to and from follow-up care, and more. This extra support can be invaluable when your mind is busy processing so many emotions and new information.

“Patient navigators can function differently at different hospitals,” Dr. Kathie-Ann Joseph, a surgical oncologist at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, told SurvivorNet. “We have a really wonderful program at [NYU] where we used lay navigators, meaning they’re not nurses — although you can use nurses or social workers, that pretty much help newly diagnosed cancer patients through the continuum of care.”

These navigators can meet with patients from their first doctors appointments, and can also:

Attend appointments
Provide an assessment for next steps of care
Assist with housing, transportation or immigration issues
Help with financial issues
Provide direction on legal issues

“They really will help them get through these barriers that we think could impact their care,” Dr. Joseph added. “Because the goal is — we want them to complete their care.”

Check out our related content on how social workers can help during the cancer treatment process.

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