Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico

CARE is proud to partner with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico through the Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico Healthy Kids, Healthy Families® (HKHF) grant in 2020!

Blue Cross Blue Shield Grant: Intervention in the Financial Toxicity of Ten Cancer Patients and Their Families

CARE works to make Doña Ana County a place for families to thrive after they are shocked with a cancer diagnosis. Cancer affects the entire family whether the victim is a child, teen, adult or senior. The term financial toxicity has been coined to describe the hardships that families face with the cancer diagnosis. Beyond the difficult treatment regimens and potentially toxic drugs, financial struggles often add stress and anxiety to caregivers and patients. Such situations do not provide for a healthy home environment, especially when decision crossroads involve choices between day-to-day necessities, such as food, rent, gas/ transportation to make to treatments, utilities or doctor appointment and drug co-pays and other medical expenses.

CARE’s attention to those daily financial needs frees the family to concentrate on getting required medical care for their loved ones while maintaining a quasi-normal home environment where basic needs are met without sacrifice. This grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield will help residents of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County who are in active treatment to cure, shrink or stop the progression of their cancer.

Evaluating the benefits of intervening in cancer’s financial toxicity through patient and caregiver questionnaires will add to the growing body of knowledge that such intervention makes a healthier living environment for the families facing these struggles. CARE will use this information to educate the community and the healthcare industry on the dangers of financial toxicity and how to be alert to signs of it and how to address it. Evidence is mounting that the holistic approach which brings together a team to support susceptible patients and their caregivers to address financial toxicity after a cancer diagnosis is needed. The data to be generated by this proposal will add to that evidence and support the growing demand that the status quo is not working, and CARE’s approach can help change the way cancer-induced financial toxicity is identified and alleviated.

Thank you Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico for this partnership!  Our local cancer patients and families are grateful too!