Financial stress is among the greatest of all the stressors that patients have. In one category you have patient’s that wonder, “How am I going to pay for my cancer treatment? How am I going to take time off work?” They have to tap into vacation time and short-term disability or take days off without pay. Some people aren’t working or can’t work. For those who have insurance, it’s rare to have a policy with complete coverage. Most insurance plans require patients to cover 20 percent of their costs, which can add up. It puts a lot of stress on people. Patients not only worry about how they’ll pay for their treatment but how they’ll make ends meet at home. People get a little anxious about it. Some need help with utility bills, co-pays, medicine, patient transportation, gas cards, and meals at home. We would like to provide these items for those that need them. In the second category, you have patients who use the ER to find out how sick they are. They don’t have insurance, and some are homeless and just trying to get by day today. These people need assistance as well. It costs more for community hospitals (and therefore taxpayers) to treat these patients because they are in need of more care so the cost financially rises.
Breast and Body Missions
Program Area 1: Outreach Program: We recognize that people who are homeless will not succeed without life skills, a positive attitude, proper hygiene, and a clean bill of health. Most of the time, when they are clean and can prevent infection from a soiled environment; they will feel better about themselves. We can start by pairing them up with local community hospitals for checkups, and counseling on guidance to start their lives. A medical “navigator” is needed to assist the patient in coordinating all aspects of medical care and navigating the health care system to meet patient needs. We understand that when faced with the challenges of life, healthcare cancer, it is not only the patients who are dealing with this. We would like to provide counseling/funding for counseling to families that may need it. We would like to provide wigs for alopecia patients going through treatment, and insurance will not cover the cost. B&B’s would also like to provide hope bags including items necessary to get through their first few times of treatment. To advance the lives of patients in our communities, by providing relief in the way of financial assistant to patients that may have to pay more for their premiums, more for their copayments, more for their deductibles. We will provide assistance in paying co-pays, medications, transportation, gas, meals, and other items needed.
Program Area 2: Financial Assistance Program: This program is a program dedicated to assisting patients in need of financial assistance/food & clothing. A survey conducted by the Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) shows that more than one half of the cancer patients indicate cancer costs negatively impact their focus on recovery. Breast and Body Health provides a food gift card program to low-income and poor residents in the community. Food is purchased from the local grocery store, as well as gift cards so families may purchase what they need. Bakery goods, clothing, and household items are also available. We feel that these activities are designed to help participants set long-term goals and overcome barriers to personal success. B&B’s Health’s goal with this program will be to offset the stress of managing the costs of cancer. We hope that by doing so, treatment will not be as difficult for many patients. The offset will provide families coping with cancer with a little bit of ease. The financial assistance program will help with mastectomy/prosthetic’s and is also a program dedicated to assisting patients with acquiring the proper items to ensure a normal or as close to normal as needed lifestyle. Prosthetics are very expensive, and the items needed to keep the prosthetics may not be covered by all insurance providers. There may be extenuating circumstances where a patient may have damaged or lost an item needed and the insurance provider will not cover a new or used one. In this instance, we will be able to step in and provide the necessary equipment donated by B&B’s. B&B’s Health mastectomy / prosthetic program will run each year at a cost of $51,300. This amount will cover the prosthetics, and the necessary items used in harmony with the prosthetic to ensure proper function. By providing this service, we believe that physicians will have an improved relationship with their patients by providing aid to those who will need our services after surgery. This program will be beneficial to our relationship with providers in the community as well as the patient/provider relationship, by offering financial relief pertaining to the proper equipment needed to low-income, underinsured, and no insurance patients. By committing to our community at this level, B&B’s Health will become a resource for not only patients, but physicians wanting to provide for patients as well.
Program Area 3: Patient Screening/ Education Program: Education is the key to helping those who need it. The education program is a program dedicated to assisting patients with the knowledge and the know how to keep themselves informed about their bodies. Through public involvement and inclusiveness within the community, B&B’s Health Education program will work in getting information to as many women as possible. B&B’s Health will mail out informational postcards that will remind patients to get screened for cancer. We will work with hospitals and private practices to hand out our B&B Saves stickers along with a 10% coupon to be used for purchasing any item in our B&B Health Stores. We would like to offset that number by providing assistance in a way that will take some of that strain from patients. In this area, we would like patients to explore issues such as self-control, coping skills, proper hygiene, success, and ask themselves difficult questions themselves. Once the patient can understand what they need as well as how they would like to proceed, then half the battle is already won.
Program Area 4: Overseas efforts: In many countries, women diagnosed with breast cancer must pay out of pocket for their surgeries as public healthcare is not an option. Following surgery, they are left again to find the means to pay (cash) for their radiation and chemotherapy. Without mastectomy supply providers, these women are left with no options or access to supplies. We not only aim to provide them these supplies but offer them hope through access to local resources available to them.
Through love, patience, and patients we have found a new partner to help forge our overseas efforts. In 2022 we sent almost $35,000 worth of products including, mastectomy bras, prostheses, and wigs to a clinic in Ghana. We have since strengthened our efforts and are planning to return with more trained fitters and supplies to continue to provide the women in Ghana and surrounding areas with the necessary products they need to continue to heal and find wellness in their journey with breast cancer.
Our objective is to serve our community by helping one person at a time. If we can make a difference starting in our own community, then maybe we can make a difference in other communities.