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When you were diagnosed with cancer, you were thrust into the fight of your life. But you may have quickly learned that the greater battle was surviving the hit that your cancer care delivered to your ...

When you were diagnosed with cancer, you were thrust into the fight of your life. But you may have quickly learned that the greater battle was surviving the hit that your cancer care delivered to your bank account.

You’re not alone. Bankruptcy rates are almost twice as high among cancer patients as the general population.

"Patients diagnosed with cancer may face significant financial stress, owing to income loss and out-of-pocket costs associated with their treatment," says Scott Ramsey, MD, PhD, a healthcare economist and internist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. "On average, bankruptcy rates increased 4-fold within 5 years of diagnosis."

Join Fight Colorectal Cancer for a webinar that will detail what resources exist to help patients navigate the very expensive waters of cancer treatment. You will hear from a person who is on the front lines of the battle: Elaine Martinez, a case manager with the Colorectal CareLine at the Patient Advocate Foundation.

Elaine serves as an active liaison between patients and their insurers, employers and/or creditors to resolve insurance, job retention, and/or debt crisis matters relative to their diagnosis of colorectal cancer. Her responsibilities include: exploring reimbursement levels for prescribed colorectal cancer treatments, researching available clinical trials for this patient population and facilitating enrollment into appropriate patient resource programs for both the uninsured and underinsured colorectal patients.