Effective Cost Conversations: Addressing Financial Toxicity and Cost-Related Health Literacy

Cancer survivors have greater risk of experiencing financial toxicity, or the undue financial burden and stress that patients face related to the costs of cancer care. Cost-related health literacy promotion should begin at the point of care with effective cost-of-care conversations that help to identify and manage patient financial needs. Nurses are uniquely positioned and often sought out as trusted sources of cost-of-care information and play a key role in engaging in effective cost conversations that help consumers to understand and manage their costs of care.

AT A GLANCE

• Improving cost-related health literacy is essential to promoting patient understanding of cancer care costs.
• Oncology nurses play a key role in helping patients to understand costs of care and find effective solutions to managing these costs.
• Effective cost-of-care conversations that promote cost-related health literacy have the potential to help mitigate the impact of financial toxicity on cancer health outcomes of patients.