Gilbert (gib) Smith, JD

In this edition, we offer an example of how clinicians and patients can be fooled and/or injured by fraudulent healthcare practitioners and their services. The clinical care team must be sure that the references it provides to patients are safe and reliable. Keep a list of reliable references and a list of those practitioners and services/treatments that should be avoided. Maintain an open door policy with your patients designed to encourage questions and exchange such information.

This month, we offer an example of persistence by the patient and her family resulting in a reversal of coverage denial.

the impact the clinical care team can have on the outcome of a health plan's decision to cover a service or treatment

This case study illustrates some of the off-treatment issues your patients may face when their coping support system is inadequate. Some of the psychological effects cancer patients deal with do not manifest until years after treatment is completed.

This case study illustrates some of the off-treatment issues your patients may face and provides some practical solutions to help patients overcome them whether you see them for regular follow-up or just receive an occasional phone call requesting assistance.

Evidence-based medicine is the key factor in gaining health plan approval of medical interventions. However, this is not the only option.

We commend the authors for an earnest, if tentative and incomplete, acknowledgment that information on discrimination in the initial or continued employment of cancer patients and survivors after enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) needs to be gathered and reported. This subject requires the type of in-depth study with which oncologists are familiar and which characterized follow-up of employment discrimination prior to enactment of the ADA [1-3].