Coping with Cancer. Part 5.

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Coping with Cancer

Part 5

Keeping Things Organized is essential

when Coping with Cancer.

Paperwork. Paperwork. Paperwork. Agghhh!!! Every day we are faced with tons of it. It is such a big task to keep things organised. And if you don’t, it takes so much extra time when it all piles up. Well, the mountain of paperwork alone, not to mention everything else, that engulfs someone coping with cancer is overwhelming – and often completely unexpected.
There will be dozens of forms to fill out, medical history to be researched and repeated over and over again, financial statements, lists of medications, and every new health care provider on the team will want his or her own copy.
Expect to deal with a primary care physician, an oncologist, an endocrinologist, a radiologist, a chemotherapy specialist, social workers, case managers, nurse practitioners, physical therapists…just to name a few. Just keeping up with the paperwork alone is almost a full time job.

Hopefully, the patient who is coping with cancer has insurance. If they are, you will need to work with the their doctors and their insurance billing departments. A lot. Some insurance companies are notorious for making things difficult so it’s going to be very important that you keep everything organized.

Being able to produce a specific piece of paper when it’s needed can mean the difference between the insurance covering the cost of treatment and paying out of pocket. Radiation treatments alone can total thousands of dollars per week, so staying organized is critical. Just coping with cancer itself is hard enough, but all the extra work it entails can be overwhelming. As I outlined in Part 4, being an Advocate is such an important ask. You need to be prepared for such an enormous workload if you decide to take it on.

When Coping With Cancer, Get Everything in Writing.

First, you’ll want to collect information from the doctors. When the diagnosis comes down, get it in writing. When the treatment plan is recommended by the physician, get it in writing. If the physician has recommended you seek a second opinion, get it in writing. When you get the second opinion, get their recommendations in writing.

For example, say you’ve gotten the second opinion but the insurance company is rejecting the claim, citing it not necessary to see that specialist. You will have the recommendation from the primary physician already in-hand and ready to email to the insurance company.

Imagine how many calls – and hours – you’ve saved simply by having the necessary paperwork to back you up! Here’s another example: The insurance company doesn’t want to pay for a specific treatment option- however you have two letters in your arsenal, one from the primary physician and one of the second physician’s opinion, and both letters recommend the same course of treatment.

Since you have this in-hand, you’ll be able to email it off to the insurance company and get it before the review board much more quickly than if you had to wait for the letter to be generated from the office, sent to you and/or emailed to the insurance company.

Coping with Cancer – Organisation will Save Hours of Work.

Keep everything – bills, receipts and letters – organized by date, type of document and by physician. This will assist down the road when you need to advocate for procedures the insurance company may try to weasel out of paying.
Colour coding is a great way to do it.

But don’t be scared. It may be a perfectly easy insurance process all the way through. That’s great if this is the case. However you cannot rely on that, so you want to be prepared just in case.
Insurance companies like to reject claims; it’s how they do things, so be prepared to work for the money.

Keeping organized while Coping with Cancer will get easier as you go along.

As an Advocate, you need to accompany the patient to every appointment. This needs to be done from the start. All treating physicians and specialists need to get to know you as well because there will come a stage where the patient might not have the strength to deal with them alone. If you have travelled on this journey together from the start, then it will be a lot easier to continue on alone if needs be.

The recommendation to “keep everything” doesn’t mean you need to cart it all around to every doctor’s appointment either, but there are some items you’re going to want to make sure you have at all times.

• Patient Identification
• Insurance Card
• Medic Alert bracelet

You may also be required to show proof of a referral if you’re seeing a new doctor or getting a new procedure. In this case, make sure you have the letter of referral from the originating physician to present to the new doctor. This is where those plastic pocket books and expandable files come in handy. They are transportable and protect all important documents.
Hopefully this article on staying organised when Coping With Cancer has helped you.Feel free to leave a comment and share with others.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with Part 6 where I will discuss the importance of staying physically strong yourself.

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